The new immigrants flooding the nation a century ago were greeted with trepidation even as their services on construction gangs were welcomed in Bangor and other cities. Newspapers summed up many of the fears.
“Inflow of aliens menace to nation,” declared a front-page headline in the Bangor Daily Commercial on Jan. 7, 1907. A former Cornell University professor urged that all American college students be given military instruction to cope with the disorder and rebellion that was surely coming. That was only one of the many stories expressing fears and contempt for the great influx of foreigners.
Whenever a fight broke out or a petty theft was committed on Bangor’s Hancock Street, the center of the city immigrant population, it was sure to make headlines. Courtroom interpreters often were required as well as lawyers to settle these disputes.
A sure way to tame this tidal wave of humanity was to Americanize it the most progressive residents believed. Before this could happen, the newcomers needed to learn to speak English. A century ago efforts were under way in Bangor to make sure this would occur.
The YMCA planned to employ “college men” from the University of Maine to teach English and possibly basic arithmetic at night in a room in the former York Street school. “There are hundreds of foreign-speaking men in Bangor, the larger percent of them being Italians and Russian Jews,” said the Bangor Daily Commercial in a story on Nov. 5, 1908. No mention was made of women.
The idea was not new in Bangor. Previous efforts had been made to start such a school at the YMCA building at Hammond and Court streets. “They were somewhat diffident about coming to the association building where there were always many young men in better circumstances than theirs, and for this reason the YMCA decided to go to them,” the story reported.
Another story on Nov. 11 announced that a school for Italians — a Union Mission school — was also in the planning stages. E.A. Natino of Springfield, Mass., a native of Venice, was in Bangor to generate interest. The Commercial story said Natino had been engaged in Salvation Army work in New York City, and had much experience in founding such schools. Natino said there were about 100 Italians living in Bangor. I did not see any further notice of this effort in the Bangor newspapers.
The YMCA night school started sometime in late November or December. The Commercial declared it a success on Jan. 1, 1909. An average of 25 students, “all Hebrews,” were attending the classes three times a week. Their average age was 30.
The head teacher was University of Maine law school student Harry Sacknoff, son of a Portland rabbi. Two fellow students, Joseph Druker and Stephen Brady, were his assistants. They taught reading, writing and spelling.
The education of women also was mentioned. “There have been a number of inquiries made at the YMCA concerning a school for girls run on the same principle. Many of the Hebrew girls of the city who have passed the public school age are desirous of seeing such a class formed.”
Such a school was founded the second week in January, the Commercial announced on Jan. 30. Organized by Miss Mary Spratt, “one of Bangor’s progressive and earnest teachers,” the class met Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings at the Valentine School at Union and First streets. Twenty-one women, mostly “Syrians, Hebrews and others who are of such an age or so employed that attendance upon our public schools is not practicable for them,” attended to learn English and arithmetic.
The schoolroom was provided by the school board, while the King’s Daughters’ Union, the Athene Club and some individuals had donated money for expenses. The students still had to pay 10 cents per class. Miss Spratt’s assistant was Miss Helen Christian of the city’s teacher training class.
These night schools eventually were absorbed by the public school system, which already was educating hundreds of foreign-speaking children. A night school was established at Bangor High School by the school board in the 1914-1915 school year.
Over the years. Miss Spratt’s name became closely associated with her efforts to teach young immigrant children at the State Street school, where more than half the enrollment was foreign-born, as well as with the earliest night school classes. She described her work in a speech to the Chamber of Commerce reported in the Commercial on May 29, 1920.
The reporter wrote that “it is estimated during the last 15 years perhaps, 2,000 little foreigners have been taught to speak the first English words they knew” at the school, and a great many adults had been taught at the night school started some 13 years before. The effort represented “Americanization in the biggest and best sense of the word.”
In outlining her philosophy, Miss Spratt told the local businessmen, “There is no way by which we can make anyone feel that it is a blessed and splendid thing to be an American, unless we ourselves are aglow with the sacred fire — unless we interpret Americanism by our kindness, our courage, our generosity and our fairness.” In this way, an older generation of Bangoreans helped create a new one in spite of all the fears and prejudices that had to be overcome.
Wayne E. Reilly can be reached at wer@bangordailynews.net.