Part of the Massachusetts Biographies Project
Jacob Osborne Sanborn
Jacob Osborne Sanborn, son of Daniel Ladd and Adah Shepard (Moore) Sanborn, was born July 6, 1840, at Loudon Centre, New Hampshire. He received his Academic education at New Hampton, New Hampshire, and entered Dartmouth at the beginning of the Fall term, August 24, 1860. He had resolved in early youth to adopt the profession of teaching, his first attempt being a school at Gilmanton, New Hampshire, when he was sixteen years of age. In the light of modern ideas, he now questions whether he taught or simply kept the school. Before graduating, he was engaged to take charge of the Grammar School at South Hingham, Massachusetts, and entered upon his duties there in August, 1864. He remained there until the Spring of 1866, when, in a competitive examination, he was the successful candidate for the position of Principal of the Cradock Grammar School at Medford, Massachusetts. He was soon after elected Principal of the High School at Needham, Massachusetts, but for good and sufficient reasons he declined the position and remained at Medford until November, 1868, at which time he removed to Winchester, Massachusetts, and assumed the duties of Principal of the Grammar School. While there, he was presented with a handsome gold watch, which would indicate the esteem in which he was held. Although he had a liberal salary among a very intelligent and appreciative people, he preferred to teach in a school of higher grade, and accepted an invitation to become Master of the High School at Hingham, Massachusetts. In the Summer of 1872, he moved to his present field of labor. In this ancient and honorable town there had been an Academy for nearly seventy-five years; but as it did not meet the growing wants of all its people, the town made a very liberal appropriation to establish a free High School. He had the pleasure of organizing the school in September, 1872, and has been its only Principal. In the Fall of 1873, he was invited and urged to return to Winchester, Massachusetts, as Principal of the High School, but thought best to decline. With no further fluctuations of place, he has been, for the past twelve years, anchored to the South Shore, so near to Plymouth Rock that he frequently hears from the Pilgrim Fathers. He feels a pride, in common with other residents of Hingham, that the town is taxed more proportionately for educational purposes than most towns in Massachusetts, and has the reputation of supporting good schools. They also have the oldest church in the United States used for public worship, and have given the State two noble Governors, Andrew and Long. He is still teaching, and hopes to die in the harness. He has been absent from school but three or four days on account of sickness since leaving college, and, were he to begin life again, would select the same calling, from which it may be inferred that he does not find it irksome. His school has a good physical apparatus and chemical laboratory, and he aims to teach according to the latest and best methods. He has been honored with no title but pedagogue, and although living where governors are made, does not expect or aspire to be one. He has twice been elected President of the Plymouth County Teachers' Association, and has read papers on educational topics before local, county and state organizations. He is a Trustee of the Hingham Public Library. He is a deacon in the Evangelical Congregational Church of Hingham. In politics, he has always been a Republican. He was married October 30, 1869, to Miss Louisa Attelia Slader, daughter of the late Edward A. Slader, of Nashua, New Hampshire. He says: "Let me add by way of advice to my bachelor classmates, especially my old chum,' that the step has proved a wise one, for in my wife I have a devoted companion and an invaluable aid." They have no children.
Source: "Memorialia of the Class of '64 in Dartmouth College" complied by John C. Webster, Shepard & Johnston, Printers, 1884, Chicago