Helen B. Webster

Helen B. Webster taught for about twenty years at the Faulkner Kindergarten in North Billerica, the free kindergarten opened in 1897 by the daughters of James R. Faulkner in memory of their parents and supported from their estates. Although it was privately endowed and never part of the town school system, it was open to every Billerica child, and its work was reported each year with the town's schools.

She came to the kindergarten about 1909 and worked there for fourteen years beside its principal, Annie M. Griffin. In 1913 the magazine Billerica reported twenty-four pupils enrolled under the two teachers and described the year's closing "Mothers' Day," when all the mothers of the village were invited and Superintendent Arthur Webber spoke. In 1916 Superintendent Eugene C. Vining wrote that the school had been "under the able management of Miss Annie M. Griffin and Miss Helen Webster" for seven years, and in 1918, when enrollment had risen to thirty-seven, that "with the long service of Miss Griffin and Miss Webster a most excellent school has been developed and the town's people do well to show a growing appreciation of such benefactions."

After Miss Griffin died in 1923, Miss Webster carried on the school with a colleague, Miss Stevens. In his report for 1925 the superintendent wrote that "Miss Webster and Miss Stevens have been associated with the school long enough to have gained the confidence of those familiar with the work"; children who were three years old by April 1 could enter the following September, and thirty-eight were enrolled.

Her own report for 1926, signed Helen B. Webster, gave the enrollment as thirty-eight with a waiting list of twelve and set out for the town the terms of the Faulkner trust: a kindergarten for Billerica children, preferably not over six years old, first for the children of employees of the Faulkner Manufacturing Company, then for those of "any other mechanics, artisans, laborers or other working people of the Village of North Billerica," and then for other residents of the village. Since the Faulkner company no longer existed, she noted, only the last two classes now applied.

References

1. Billerica (magazine), 1913, p. 7: Kindergarten in North Billerica, taught by Miss Griffin and Miss Helen Webster; Mothers' Day
2. Report of the Superintendent of Schools, 1916 (Faulkner Kindergarten under Miss Griffin and Miss Helen Webster for seven years)
3. Report of the Superintendent of Schools, 1918 (long service of Miss Griffin and Miss Webster)
4. Report of the Superintendent of Schools, 1923 (death of Annie M. Griffin, principal of the Faulkner Kindergarten)
5. Report of the Superintendent of Schools, 1925 (Faulkner Kindergarten: Miss Webster and Miss Stevens)
6. Faulkner Kindergarten report, 1926 (enrollment 38, waiting list of twelve)
7. Faulkner Kindergarten report, 1926 (terms of the Faulkner trust; signed Helen B. Webster)