Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/644

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The subscription which follows indicates the time when stoves began to take the place of fire-places in the heating of our schoolhouses:

The poverty of the people after the Revolutionary War, compelled them to reduce all expenditures, both public and private, to the lowest terms. As a consequence, the cause of education suffered with all other interests, and, so far as the records show, private or proprietor's schools were all that were sustained. Tuition was paid by the parents or guardians of the pupils to meet the expenses of the schools. In fact, the tuition plan continued long after town and state made annual appropriations for free schools, and it is only within thirty years that common school education has been absolutely free in all the towns of the state.

It is a well known fact that Rhode Island was tardy,