Back to Referring Page

Captain Peter Sears & the Mount Blue District School
Captain Peter Sears was a Revolutionary War soldier. When alarm was given from Lexington, April 19, 1775 he turned out and enlisted as a private under Captain Galen Clapp and served 5 days. On May 7, 1775 he enlisted under Captain Nathaniel Winslow and served 3 months, 6 days. In the Continental Army he appeared with the rank of Captain in Capt. Pattin's Corps of Articifers. He married Susanna Collamore (1751-1824) in 1777 and settled near Bryant's Corner, Mount Blue Village, in Scituate. Both graves in Norwell Center Cemetery are marked with slate stones. On returning from West Point he took up farming and used his mechanical knowledge in making doors, windows, and farm implements. His account book shows that he got out stones for the school house. This probably included the oxen and he received 6 shillings. He put in two days on the school house and be received 6 shillings. He also provided 153 feet of timber for the school house. As this is to Elijah Bowker "Deter" it is probable that Elijah was the "Prudential Committee" for the district. Capt. Sears wrote the way he spoke. There was a goodly mixture of Anglo-Saxon such as "afixing your barn," "a fencing," "a giting stones." He spelled the way he talked: "myself and oxen in the swamp," "to hewing one day," "to my oxin and hors to the barber." Elijah had a "Contry Page" so that when they settled all book accounts "and find due me the sum of five dollars and seventy five cents as witness our hand." After Elijah Bowker and Peter Sears signed the quill was used to make a cross showing that all was settled. The account was kept in pounds, shillings, and pence but translated into American dollars and cents. It is only from this account book that we get evidence as to when the first schoolhouse was built in the District. However, it is a valuable source of information and gives an indication of the education of a leading man in Scituate.


January 30, 1808 Elijah Bowker to Peter Sears
To one day getting stones for school house Yellow-a.jpg - 999 Bytes 6 shillings
To two days on the school house Yellow-a.jpg - 999 Bytes 12 shillings
To 153 foot of timber for the school house Yellow-a.jpg - 999 Bytes 18 shillings
To 99 feet of boards for the schoolhouse Yellow-a.jpg - 999 Bytes 6 shillings
To 99 feet of boards for the school house Yellow-a.jpg - 999 Bytes 9 shillings

This suggests that the Mount Blue School house was erected in 1808. We know that it was located on the knoll almost opposite to the house of Manlius Perry. It was to serve the village for 50 years.

The village of Mount Blue, or "Backstreet" as some liked to call it, like all districts, was an uncertain place. The district line commenced at Groundsel Brook and went to the Hingham line and to Valley Swamp long before there was a road through that quagmire.