Nettie Spofford and the pupil's own drawing

In January 1907, Nettie Johnson Spofford, Merrimac's supervisor of drawing, explained what she wanted to see on a child's drawing paper. Work bearing a pupil's name, she wrote, should not be the work of the teacher. The teacher could suggest improvements, but the drawing belonged to the pupil. She had only one period a week with the high-school students, and her report makes the practical limits of that work plain.

A Merrimac childhood

The Merrimac, Massachusetts, birth register records a child named Nettie Johnson Spofford born on May 8, 1879, to Nathan J. and Mary E. (Shorey) Spofford. It places the parents in Merrimac and gives Nathan's occupation as body maker.

The printed state birth index also gives her birthplace as Merrimac (registration vol. 304, p. 255).

A printed family genealogy, published in 1888, gives the same birth date. Its entry for Nathan J. Spofford and Mary E. Bryant lists three daughters: Clara B. (born August 14, 1868), Sarah A. (born July 14, 1870), and Nettie J. (born May 8, 1879). Her mother appears as Mary E. Shorey in the birth register and Mary E. Bryant in the genealogy, which is a compiled family record, not an original marriage document, and does not explain the difference.

Merrimac's 1898 annual report lists Nettie J. Spofford among the high school's 1897 graduates in the General Course. Collector Pam Beveridge identifies a Class of 1897 portrait as hers, and the graduation list fits. The portrait's mount names Oak of Merrimac (Herbert C. Oak, photographer), so it was probably made at Herbert C. Oak's studio. Its reverse has not been examined. No family relationship between Nettie and the Oaks has been established.

Training and teaching

A catalog from the Massachusetts Normal Art School probably shows where she trained. Its 1902-1903 edition lists Nettie J. Spofford with Class A and B certificates in 1899 and 1900, and a Public School Class diploma in 1901. The entry gives neither her hometown nor her parents.

Athol's financial report for 1901-1902 lists $22.50 in salary to a Nettie J. Spofford, probably the same woman. It gives no job title, length of service or salary rate.

Nettie's teaching was not confined to drawing at the outset. Merrimac's 1904 school report records that she had left the Birch Meadow school to take up professional duties elsewhere; the report does not name her destination. By the 1906 town report she was back in the local school record, submitting what she called her first report as director of drawing. She described freehand and mechanical classes, with pupils from all four high-school years working together in the mechanical class. Some were ready for advanced work while others were beginning. Her requests were concrete: reference books, pottery and casts to draw from, small tables or stands for arranging objects, and a way to display pictures without exposing them to ordinary classroom wear. Drawing, she argued, deserved sustained attention comparable to other subjects.

In the following year's report, she proposed making high-school drawing elective throughout the course. With so little weekly teaching time, she believed students who wanted to advance could accomplish more. She also explained a rise in materials costs: three grammar schools that had shared supplies in one building now occupied three separate buildings, and each needed its own set. Once those sets were provided, she expected drawing paper to be the chief expense for the next five years.

Directories in 1909, 1912 and 1916 list Nettie J. Spofford as a teacher at Merrimac Port, without naming the school.

The Merrimacport homestead

Her father's will, made in November 1908, gave his wife, Mary E., a life interest in his Merrimacport homestead.

After Mary's death, daughters Clara B. Williams and Sarah A. Spiller were each to receive a quarter, and Nettie half, subject to a narrow strip of land left to Clara. If Nettie paid for needed repairs during her mother's lifetime, the estate was to repay her afterward. The will names the same three daughters as the 1888 genealogy: Clara B. Williams, Sarah A. Spiller and Nettie.

Drafting, and where the trail stops

By 1921 a Nettie J. Spofford, probably the same woman, was working as a draftsman in Lawrence, at 283 Essex Street, according to the directory for the year ending September 1921.

Lowell directories from 1924 and the year ending January 1926 list the same name and occupation at 40 Middlesex Street, room 114, with a change of home address. None names an employer or gives her age or family, so none securely ties her to the Merrimac teacher.

On a family monument at Locust Grove Cemetery in Merrimac, the names Spofford and Williams appear together: Nathan J. Spofford (1844-1910), Mary S.B. his wife (1842-1914), J. Allen Williams (1868-no death year visible), and Clara B. his wife (1868-1927). Nettie's name is not on either photographed face.

An Andover "Nellie M. Spofford" who died in 1941 may be her, but nothing yet links the two. The Massachusetts death index lists her in 1941 (the original reads M., though the index provider's transcription gives N.). The Boxford Historical Society's obituary list separately has a "Nellie M. Spofford" who died on September 2, 1941, but the obituary itself has not yet been examined. The state's online death records do not reach 1941 for Andover, and no copy has been ordered. Newspaper searches for Nettie's name between 1950 and 1980 found no good match, and she is not among the Spofford burials indexed for the two cemeteries checked. Her death and burial have not been found.

A downloadable packet collects the teaching-career sources and images: Nettie J. Spofford: a teaching life -- combined evidence (PDF).

Sources

• 1897 Photograph of Graduate Nettie J. Spofford. Pam Beveridge, Heirlooms Reunited, September 10, 2020.
• Births registered in the Town of Merrimac, 1879. Merrimac town clerk; Massachusetts vital registration, via Ancestry. Entry 14, 8 May 1879.
• Annual report of the town officers of the Town of Merrimac, year ending January 31, 1898. Town of Merrimac. Graduates of 1897, General Course.
• Annual report of the town officers of the Town of Merrimac, 1904. Town of Merrimac. School report, pp. 22-23.
• Annual report of the town officers of the Town of Merrimac, 1906. Town of Merrimac. Report of Supervisor of Drawing, pp. 25-26.
• Annual report of the town officers of the Town of Merrimac, 1907. Town of Merrimac. Report of Supervisor of Drawing, pp. 20-21; staff list p. [3].
• Recorded will of Nathan J. Spofford. Essex County, Massachusetts, probate records, via Ancestry. Executed 26 November 1908, recorded pp. 199-200.
• Massachusetts Normal Art School: Circular and Catalogue for the Thirtieth Year, 1902-1903. Certificates and diploma, pp. 27 and 38.
• Newbury, Massachusetts, city directory, 1909; 1912; 1916. Merrimac section, via Ancestry.
• Lawrence, Massachusetts, city directory, year ending September 1921. Via Ancestry.
• Lowell, Massachusetts, city directory, 1924; year ending January 1926. Via Ancestry.
• Athol annual report, school financial report, 1901-1902. Salary expenditures, p. 176.
• Jeremiah Spofford, A genealogical record (1888), p. 322, entry for Nathan J. Spofford and Mary E. Bryant. Scan via Ancestry.
• Massachusetts statewide birth index, 1879, Merrimac, registration vol. 304, p. 255. Ancestry/Holbrook viewer, inspected October 1, 2026.
• Spofford-Williams family monument, Locust Grove Cemetery, Merrimac. Photographs: John Glassford, Find a Grave, added May 6, 2011 (memorial photos 42037616, 42037605).
• Massachusetts death index, 1941, Andover, registration vol. 2, p. 127 (candidate entry, unlinked); Boxford Historical Society obituary list (candidate entry, obituary itself not read).