THE HISTORY OF NEEDHAM 363 age, were recipients of his instruction and correction. Solo- mon Flagg began to teach in 1826 and for thirty-eight years was a schoolmaster in Needham and in other towns. He is identified with several districts, notably the West and South. Mr. Tucker, who at different times attended school in every district in Needham, and also in a district in Dedham, said that Mr. Flagg was his best teacher, and that he learned a great deal from him. Miss Lucy Dakin Hunt, Centre, or small school in the West, 1837-50, except 1847, when she was at the Great Plain. Gustavus Adolphus Somerby taught at the Centre in the winter of 1 840/1. He belonged to a well-known Newbury family, and was prominent among the lawyers of Boston, gaining a reputa- tion as a keen and able counsel for the defence in the noted trial of Alley accused of the murder of Abijah Ellis. Charles Hiram Dewing, later for many years superinten- dent of streets. South two winters, 1847/8 and 1849/50. Miss Charlotte Kingsbury, of a well-known West Needham family, 1848-65, North, East, Great Plain and Centre. Miss Kingsbury was a severe teacher, and stories are told of hci skill in tripping up boys, and of mediaeval punishments. Adeline Maria Eaton, later Mrs. John M. Harris, 1849-63, East, South, Centre, but chiefly the primary school on the Great Plain. Miss Charlotte M. Sawyer, later Mrs. Luther Allen Kingsbury, North and Grantville 1853-65. She taught the latter school 1856-65, and her sister, Miss Harriet Elizabeth Sawyer, later Mrs. Ezra C. Dudley, East or West or Centre primary, 1854-9, ^^'^ in 1865 succeeded Char- lotte at Grantville, where she taught in 1866. They were daughters of Otis and Charlotte Sawyer. Albert Palmer, A.M., Dartmouth 1858, later State Senator, and Mayor of Boston in 1883, was master of the Great Plain school five winters 1853-8, and his brother, Alanson, who was grad- uated at Dartmouth in i860, and was A.M., had the Centre school two winters, 1855-7, the South two, 1858-60. A third brother, Wilson, Dartmouth i860, Albany Law
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