Present-day Cony High School sits on the site that served many generations of Augusta students: the Cony Female Academy was here from 1844/45 to 1857 and Cony Free High School was built here in 1881. After the Female Academy closed, the resources (location and endowment) were used to help establish Cony Free High School in 1881. The ornate Queen Anne building was demolished in the 1920's to make way for the current structure, which the city decided to undertake in 1926. Construction stretched over a number of years and the current building was completed in 1929/30, then dedicated in November of 1930.

 Schools existed in variety of forms in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Augusta, and women figured prominently in them.

Ì      One of the earliest acts of the 1771 Hallowell settlement (which encompassed Augusta) was to vote sixteen pounds for schooling. The meeting actually took place at Fort Western. There were 100 families in the area at that time. By 1787, there were eight school districts in the area, four on each side of the river (from Pittston to Vassalborough) with a district committee in each to oversee the schools and the power to levy taxes for their support. It is not known if girls attended these early schools.

Ì      In 1797, the newly formed town of Augusta appropriated $400 for schools, and by 1798 there were eight districts in the town, each with its own committee to oversee the schools.

Ì      Cony Female Academy opened in 1816 (founded in 1815) as a private academy, but with provisions for orphans and poor girls to attend. Miss Hannah B. Aldrich was head of the school.

Ì      In 1836 Augusta High School (private) opened at the Corner of Bridge and State streets, on the west side of the river. The school, although officially established to –prepare young men for college," included women - students and teachers alike. Miss Allen (a sister to the principal) and Miss Hannah Lambard were assistants to the principal. Later, two English ladies, noted as the Misses Taylor, taught there. Girls and boys had separate floors, but shared recitation and recess periods. Young women students included: Louisa Weston, Harriet Williams, Sarah Stanwood, Augusta Vose, Caroline Sewall, Susan Sewall, Lucy W. Brooks, and Priscilla Webster. These young women were the daughters of Augusta's prominent citizens who paid tuition of $6.00 per term for each child. The high school closed by 1843, but other schools were established: three grammar schools and six primary schools - some were for boys and girls to attend together.

Ì      In 1848, the 1836 high school building was purchased by the Village School District and another high school established. Miss Hannah Holway was assistant to the principal (F. A. Waterhouse) and taught –Arithmetic, Geography, English, Latin Grammar, History and French." (The Cony Student, April 1891) In 1869, a new high school was built at this site.

Ì      In 1881, Cony Free High School was established, supported in part by funds from the old Cony Female Academy. The trustees gave the funds with the requirement that the school be free, hence the name. This year the city assumed control of the school, which opened in the fall with 75 students and three teachers. It is assumed young women attended from the beginning for by 1886 fifty-seven students had graduated - thirty girls and twenty-seven boys. The class of 1886 included five girls and three boys and each read an essay at the graduation exercise. The girls were: Lizzie W. Myrick, Augusta T. Libby, Lena C. Colby, Mary L. Arnold, Essie C. Willis. Two of the three boys are noted as studying in the –College Preparatory Department," while none of the girls were, although their areas of study were either the –English Department" or the –English and Classical Department."

Ì      By 1883, school was an active enterprise in the city. Over 2,065 students attended school (two major school districts, 20 small neighborhood schools, plus secondary students in the Free High School). This was nearly 24% of the 8,666 residents in the town (1880 U.S. Census). In 1883, there were three school terms per year, each different in length: Term #1 was 8 weeks, Term #2 was 13 weeks, and Term #3 was 12 weeks. Women were the majority of teachers, even at the high school. George B. Giles was the principal, and Miss Helen W. Fuller and Miss Clara Allen were the full-time teachers (others taught part-time). The salary comparison for the three full-time high school faculty followed conventional lines of gender inequality. Mr. Giles was by far the best paid (although he had administrative duties), earning $1,250 for the three terms in the 1882-83 school year. Miss Allen earned $374.50, and Miss Fuller earned $417 for the same time period. Pre-high school teachers had a somewhat more gender balanced distribution of payment. For those easily identifiable (gender is unknown where only initials are noted) the highest paid was a man (Merton A. Rollins), but for those earning less, the payment range was more gender-balanced. For example, Edward Mosher earned $6.50 per week for the winter term, while C. Imogen Blackman earned $7.45 per week for this term. Total wages included salary and costs for board. Teachers are listed in the town report by term, but the record shows that most made a commitment to teach for the entire year.

Ì      In June of 1890, Cony High School students recalled their school's history in a newsletter article about the year 1847. Women staff in 1847 included: Mrs. Charlotte M. Fales, registrar, and Miss Anne E. Abbott, assistant. (Mr. David Fales was principal.) Women (still living in 1890) listed as attending in 1847 were Mary A. Dorr, Eliza Partridge, Lavonia Rust, Mary C. Wadsworth, Laura Folsom, Ellen Fenno, Octavia Hallett, Maria L. Dole, Eliza Southwick, May Phinney. Mary Phinney is noted as –for many years one of our most successful teachers," but it is not clear whether she was one of the class who later became a teacher in the school, or whether she was a teacher in 1847. Academic selections for 1847 students included: arithmetic (three options - –vulgar fractions," –decimal fractions," and –proportion"), reading, Latin (literature and grammar), Greek, geography, and philosophy. The unidentified author of the 1890 article gave the reason for this backward glance as –. . . for the instruction and amusement of those who shall succeed us."

Ì      Present-day Cony High School was completed by 1929/30 and dedicated in 1930. In 1930, Mrs. Cora Partridge and Mrs. J. Fuller Ingraham served on the Augusta Board of Education.

Ì      In 2001, Cornelia Brown is the Superintendent of Schools and the city is undertaking a study for a new high school to be built on the outskirts of town.

Even though public education was one of the first appropriations of the early incorporated towns (first Hallowell in 1771, then Augusta when it separated in 1797), schooling was a controversial issue in the nineteenth century; the controversy was not the question of whether there should be education or not, but rather how to organize, fund, and run the schools - and particularly the number of years of schooling and what subjects to offer. Prominent citizens had the resources to establish their own institutions if they were not happy with the district schools, and where high schools were concerned, they did so. Augusta citizens, however, did value basic education from early on and by 1798 there were eight school districts funded with local tax money and managed by neighborhood committees. Maine, as a state, did not provide funding for education until 1828 and school attendance (at least twelve weeks per year for those nine to fifteen years old) was not compulsory until 1875. The 1819 State Constitution, however, gave the state power to make certain that towns provided for the support and maintenance of public schools. An 1833 Augusta law gave school districts control over their own school and the authority to levy taxes for support, but neighbors did not necessarily agree about the types and levels of schooling to be supported. In order to have the level of education they desired, those with financial resources established private schools, and some made provisions for some of the less affluent, as with Cony Female Academy.

Early public schools were called –common schools." –Grammar schools" provided education above the elementary level and were established by parents through purchasing shares. Other options (private) for schooling in the nineteenth century included –dame schools" for girls and young children, boarding schools for boys, and academies (such as Cony Female Academy for girls and Hallowell Academy for boys), which required tuition and often drew from surrounding areas. By 1881, the town assumed responsibility for the high school, but the district system for younger students continued. Although opportunities for education were not the same for all Augusta students, it is clear that education was an early and important priority in the community and women, as students and as teachers, were prominent in this endeavor.

Site # 9.1 Sources:

	Augusta (City of), Maine, Municipal Directory, 2001.
	Augusta (City of): Municipal Year Ending March 19, 1883.
	Augusta, Maine Sesquicentennial. Special reprint of the Daily Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine, Sesquicentennial Edition, Wednesday, July 30, 1947.
	Butler, Joyce. –Family and Community Life." In Maine The Pine Tree State. Edited by R. W. Judd, E. A. Churchill, and J. W. Eastman, 217 - 241. Orono, ME: University of Maine Press, 1995.
	Dedication, New Cony High Building, Wednesday Evening, November 12, 1930. Program for the dedication ceremony for the new Cony High School.
	Faith Communities of Augusta, Maine Past and Present. A City Bicentennial Project under the auspices of the Augusta Clergy Association, 1997.
	Douin, Anthony. Interviews by and conversations with Phyllis vonHerrlich, 17 March 2001, 31 August 2001, 18 September 2001, 28 September 2001, Augusta, Maine.
	Leamon, James S., Richard R. Wescott, and Edward O. Schriver. –Separation and Statehood." In Maine The Pine Tree State. Edited by R. W. Judd, E. A. Churchill, and J. W. Eastman, 169-192. Orono, ME: University of Maine Press, 1995.
	North, James W. The History of Augusta Maine. Somesworth, NH: New England History Press, 1981. New forward by Edwin A. Churchill. Originally published in 1870 by Clapp and North of Augusta, ME.
	The Cony Student. Cony High School, Augusta, Maine. Issues: April, June- 1886; June - 1890; March -1891; April - 1891; February - 1893.