Father Sues Town for $15,000 Because Proper Conveyance is Not Provided to School-November 22, 1895

WANTS HIS CHILDREN CARRIED.

This town is all in a ferment again over the so-called Gillin case.

Away back in 1889 Rev George Hill, who was then chairman of the school board of Norwood, authorized Mr. James J. Gillon, who resides near the Dedham borderline and three miles from the nearest normal school house, to send his three children to the Fisher school in Dedham, at the expense of the town of Norwood. This entirely satisfactory arrangement continued until May 1892, when Mr H. T. Atwood, who had succeeded Mr. Hill as chairman of the Norwood school board, ordered Mr. Gillon to stop sending his children to the Fisher school, and to keep them at home until some other arrangement could be made.

The children were kept at home continuously until the fall of 1894; in the meanwhile, the father had frequent interviews with Mr. Atwood and other members of the board, at each of which he was assured that the town would do something for him. At last in the early part of 1894 a warrant was issued against Mr. Gillon, upon complaint of the school board, for not sending his children three miles on foot to school at the center. The proceedings under this warrant never came to anything, as at the April town meeting succeeding an appropriation was made to carry these children to and from school. This arrangement was entered into by the school board in an ill-natured way, and the conveyance which was offered in the fall of 1894 was such that the father would not allow his children to avail themselves of it.

Through his attorney, Mr. N. L. Sheldon, he then began a suit against the town for refusal to provide proper schooling for the children, laying his damage at $5000 in each case, $15,000 in all. This suit came within one or two of being reached at the last term of the superior court at Dedham, and it will be heard early in the January term.

Now, pending these proceedings, another warrant has been taken out against Mr. Gillon by the school board for neglect to send the children to school. The case will come up on Tuesday next.

There is a great deal of hard feeling in this matter, and the school committee are charged in many respectable quarters with acting under the inspiration thereof in this last move.

The towns hereabouts are all carrying their school children to and from school, where they reside even from a mile to a mile and a half, and the better people are entirely willing to pay for proper conveyance in the cars. The result of next Tuesday’s trial will be awaited with intense interest.

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Boston Globe