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FREDERICK F. BARROWS
HARTFORD: Public School Teacher
Frederick Freeman Barrows, principal of the Brown school, Hartford, and one of the best known educators in New England, was born in Mansfield, September 4, 1821. He received a common school, select school,and academical education, and has followed the profession of teaching since the winter of 1839, although he did not enter upon it as a determined life-work until 1843. His early life was that of a farmer in his native town. He taught school winters from the time he was eighteen years of age, teaching two terms in Springfield. He taught in Willimantic for six years, and his record in equipping young men especially for a life work was so marked that attention was attracted to him in Hartford and in Norwich, both of which cities were in competition for his services in 1850. He was finally engaged as principal of the First school district in Hartford, a position which he has held for forty-one years; being the longest continual term of service of any school teacher in the state. His work in Hartford has been of the greatest value to the public of his district, which is in that part of the city known as the Fifth and Sixth wards, and has a large element of foreign population. He was the inspiring agency in the construction of the fine Brown school building named after Flavius A. Brown, who was chairman of the school committee for many years, and in close sympathy with the efforts of Mr. Barrows for the establishment of a first-class school for the masses. Mr. Barrows outlined to him what he desired, and, the district approving of his plans, the building was erected; which at the time of its construction was without doubt the finest school edifice in the state. Within a few years past the main building has been enlarged by the addition of a kindergarten department, which is carried on under the most approved modern system after Froebel, the founder of that style of teaching the young. Mr. Barrows’s school numbers between 1,500 and 1,700 pupils, and requires a trained corps of thirty-five teachers and special instructors in German, penmanship, drawing, and singing to carry on the work. At a celebration of the fortieth anniversary of Mr. Barrows’s connection with the school a portrait of him was presented to the school by his many friends, and some souvenirs of the occasion were given to him. Hon. M. J. Dooley, then United States bank commissioner, a graduate of the school, made the address of presentation, and most fittingly characterized the school when he said: "Mr. Barrows’s genius has here reared an institution which is for the Protestant and Catholic, the Jew and Gentile, absolutely without a rival." Mr. Barrows has frequently been called upon to address teachers’ conventions and educational gatherings upon his methods of teaching, and especially upon his mode of instruction in numbers, in which he has a wonderful talent amcnnting to genius. Graduates of the Brown school may be found in all parts of the country, and they uniformly testify to the healthful influence and wholesome results of his training. He has been a rigid disciplinarian, but tempers his school government with the rarest judgment and tact. It has been an every-day spectacle at the Brown school to see Mr. Barrows near the gateway, and hundreds of little children grasping him by the hand to say, "Good day, Mr. Barrows," as school closes. He knows children intuitively, and has had wonderful success in bringing forth from what seemed unpromising minds excellent citizens and intelligent men in all the walks of life. In 1882 his friends sent him to Europe on a tour for recreation, a kindness which he greatly appreciated. Mr. Barrows has been prominently identified with thc Park Congregational church in Hartford. He has never taken any active part in political life, but has been in sympathy with the republican party from its foundation. His wife was Harriet Harris of Willimantic, and he has five children living. Volumes might be written, full of instances connected with his teaching, in which his acute knowledge of human nature and his power of "reading" persons have been most remarkable. He is as much an institution of Hartford and Connecticut as is the school system itself, and his life work has been more than ordinarily successful in that it has tended to the uplifting and betterment especially of the children of the poor of his city.
Source: Illustrated Popular Biography of Connecticut - 1891, Compiled and Published by J. A. Spalding, Hartford Conn., Press of the Case, Lockwood and Brainard Company, 1891
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