Massachusetts. State Primary School (Monson, Mass.)

St 1866, c 209 established at the State Almshouse at Monson a State Primary School for the instruction and employment of dependent and neglected children without settlement in the Commonwealth, to be under the superintendent and inspectors of the almshouse. To it were transferred by the Board of State Charities children under age sixteen from the Monson, Bridgewater, and Tewksbury almshouses, especially orphans (along with children of indigent parents, called dependent) or those who parents had abandoned them or been convicted of a crime (neglected); also certain pupils from the State Reform School at Westborough. (See also St 1872, c 68, s 6.) St 1870, c 359, s 10 (revising St 1869, c 453, s 4; see also St 1871, c 365) allowed placement in temporary custody at the school by the board of other juveniles facing criminal charges, upon court authorization at request of the board's visiting agent (Board of State Charities. Annual report. 9th, 1872 (PD 17: Jan 1873))

St 1872, c 45 closed the Monson and Bridgewater almshouses, but the Primary School continued under the Monson superintendent and inspectors. Adults not transferred to the Tewksbury Almshouse were placed for support or temporary custody as helpers at the State Primary School (along with their children under age three) (s 3), as were other adult paupers at the discretion of the Board of State Charities (annual report previously cited). St 1873, c 262, s 7 allowed court committal to the State Primary School of habitual truants, as permitted to specific municipalities by the state board.

St 1879, c 291 replaced the board with the State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity--more specific responsibility for the school rested with the Trustees of the State Primary and Reform Schools (i.e., at Westborough and, for girls, the State Industrial School at Lancaster)--replacing the State Primary School inspectors and the individual reform school boards of trustees--who could transfer inmates from the State Industrial School and the State Reform School to the State Primary School (St 1880, c 208, s 2). Placement of school inmates on trial with families (often followed by indenture, previously arranged by the almshouse) by the superintendent (Gardiner Tufts, Dec. 1879-Dec.? 1884) and inspectors had been encouraged by St 1866, c 209, s 7; the power was vested in the trustees by St 1880, c 208, s 1, with additional power to board out younger or handicapped children at state expense. St 1882, c 181 allowed the state board to transfer dependent children to the school in the same manner as local overseers of the poor transferred them to the Tewksbury Almshouse (i.e., directly as well as from the almshouse) (s 2), and the courts to do so indirectly by committing neglected children to custody of the board (s 3)

The State Board of Lunacy and Charity (succeeeding the State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity in 1886) had in its annual reports (Jan 1893 and Jan 1894) objected to the growing number of juvenile offenders in the State Primary School, proposing to protect the other inmates by renewed efforts at family placement--their success in this led to the passage of St 1895, c 428, which abolished the State Primary School and renamed the trustees as the Trustees of the Lyman (i.e., at Westborough) and Industrial Schools under jurisdiction of the state board, with power to recommit offenders to the reform schools and to place remaining State Primary School inmates at home or in other suitable homes.

NAME AUTHORITY NOTE. Series relating to the agency described above can be found by searching the following access point for the time period stated: 1866-1895--Massachusetts. State Primary School (Monson, Mass.)