USA > Connecticut > A history of Connecticut > Part 23
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29
6 JOHN PIERPONT was born in Litch- field, April 6, 1785. He graduated at Yale in the class of 1804. After filling the position of tutor for four years in the family of Colonel William Allston of South Carolina, he returned home, and studied law. Ill health and other con- siderations led him to abandon his pro- fession, and for a time he was engaged in mercantile pursuits. Entering the ministry, he became pastor in 1819 of the Hollis-street Unitarian Church in Boston. He had already published a volume of poems in 1816, called The Airs of Palestine, which met with a favorable reception. Many of his short poems have been very popular, and had a wide circulation. He died at Medford, Mass., Aug. 27, 1866.
7 FITZ-GREENE HALLECK was born at Guilford, August, 1790. At the age of eighteen he entered a banking-house in New York, with which he afterwards became associated. For many years he was in the private office of John Jacob Astor. In 1848 he retired to his native place, where he resided until his death. He early showed ability as a poet, and his reputation was established by the publication of a volume of his poems in 1827.
8 S. G. GOODRICH, born at Ridgefield in 1793, is best known under his nom de plume of Peter Parley. He did much to popularize historical and scientific knowledge, and wrote a series of books for children, that extended through more than one hundred volumes.
9 HENRY WARD BEECHER was born in Litchfield, June 24, 1813, and died in Brooklyn, N.Y., March 8, 1887. After graduating at Amherst College, in 1834, he studied theology at Lane Seminary, Cincinnati, of which institution his father was the president. He began his ministry in a Presbyterian Church at Lawrenceburg, Ind., where he re-
301
CONNECTICUT IN LITERATURE.
mained two years. He then removed to Indianapolis, the capital of the State, where he remained until he accepted the pastorate of Plymouth Church, Brook- lyn, in 1847. From this time on, his ability as a platform-speaker and pulpit- orator was universally recognized. His death called forth the testimony on every side, that no voice had ever spoken with more marvellous range of power and in- fluence for humanity and the country in its hour of peril.
10 HORACE BUSHNELL was born at New Preston, then a part of Litchfield, in April, 1802, and died Feb. 17, 1876. After graduating at Yale College in 1827, he was, for a few months, on the edito-
.
rial staff of the Journal of Commerce, and afterwards taught in a school at Nor- wich. In 1829 he became a tutor at Yale. He commenced the study of law, but in 1831 he decided to enter the ministry. In 1833 he was chosen pastor of the North Congregational Church in Hartford, where he remained for twenty - four years. Ill health compelled him finally to relinquish the active duties of a pas- torate, but his pen was busy almost to the close of his life. . Dr. Bushnell was a public-spirited citizen, and it was at his suggestion that the land was secured for the beautiful park in Hartford that bears his name.
302
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CONNECTICUT.
ITTHE founders of Connecticut had a high appreciation of education. If their first thought was of the church and religious privileges, the second was of the school. Both in New Haven and TRabodefg Hijklmnopq risingwxyzk aeiou ABCDEFGHIJKUMNOPO RETUVWXYZ Hartford the public rec- ords show that teachers were employed. and schools alej it. ob ub ac cc ic Qc uc barbe bi bo bu .ca ce ci co cu ad ed id dd ud.| da de di do du opened, within a short time after their settlement. The example of these leading communities in making pro- vision for the education of their children, was followed by other towns as they sprung up.
in the Name of the Fatherland of the Son, and ol ibo Holy Ghost. Amen. UR Father, which art in Helpen, Hallowed be thy Namensthe Kingdom come, thy Will be done on Earth, as it is in Heaven Gise is this day our daily Bread, altid forgive us our Trof paffes, As we forgive them that riefpafs againft. us : And. lead us not into Temptation, but deliver us from Evil Einen
As early as 1650, the Connecticut colony ordered that every township of fifty families should sustain a THE HORN- воок. school, in which reading and writ- town num- school was ing were to be taught. When the bered one hundred families, a grammar to be set up. and teachers employed who could prepare any who might desire to enter the college at Cambridge. This provision was changed in 1672, and it
PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CONNECTICUT.
303
was only required that these grammar schools should be kept up in each county-seat.
The colonial records give ample proof of the deep interest that was felt in the cause of education. The bequest of Governor Edward Hopkins by his will, made in 1657, laid the foundations of the present high schools of New Haven
A
B
In ADAM's Fall We finned all.
Heaven to find, The Bible Mind.
C
Chrift crucify'd For finners dy'd.
D
The Deluge drown'd The Earth around.
E
ELIJAH hid By Ravens fed.
F
The judgment made FELIX afraid.
A PAGE IN THE NEW-ENGLAND PRIMER
and Hartford. This gift was the first of the many that have been bestowed by citizens of Connecticut to aid her schools and colleges. Very few branches of study were taught in the public schools of colonial times. The modern text- books, that put the principles of knowledge in numbers, language, science, and geography, in simple and classified form, were then unknown. But, while the range of learning
304
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
was limited, care was taken that there should be no illiterate children growing up. The obligation was placed upon every parent and guardian, " not to suffer so much barbarism in any of their families, as to have a single child or apprentice unable to read the holy word of God and the good laws of
.Mi6. c
THE NORMAL SCHOOL : NEW BRITAIN.1
the colony ; ' and to bring them up to some lawful calling or employment,' under a penalty for each offence."
Until after the Revolution, about the only books studied in the common schools were the New-England Primer, with its blurred and doleful pictures, and the Bible and Psalter. The now curious Hornbook 2 was in the hands of the younger
305
PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CONNECTICUT.
pupils ; while the older scholars had to depend, to a large extent, upon oral instruction. ,Arithmetic was only taught as far as the rule of three ; and the rules and examples were confined to the manuscript volume, that belonged to the teacher. The first geography for the use of schools was not published until 1784, and English grammar was seldom taught. Reading, spelling, and writing received special at- tention ; and the boys and girls of colonial times, in these
COUNTRY SCHOOL IN THE EARLY PART OF THE CENTURY.
important exercises, were quite proficient. The teachers wrote all the copies, and made and mended the pens, which were of goose-quills.
The late President Humphrey of Amherst College, a na- tive of Connecticut, in writing of the period between 1790 and 1810, says, " Our school-books were the Bible, Webster's Spelling-book, and ' Third Part,' mainly. One or two others were found in some schools for the reading-classes. Gram- mar was hardly taught at all in any of them, and that little was confined almost entirely to committing and reciting the
.
306
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
rules. Parsing was one of the occult sciences, in my day.
" We had some few lessons in geography, by questions and answers ; but no maps, no globes: and as for black- boards, such a thing was not thought of till long after. Children's reading and picture books, we had none: the fables in Webster's Spelling-book came nearest to it. Arithmetic was hardly taught at all, in the day-schools. As a substitute, there were some evening-schools in most of the districts. Spelling was one of the daily exercises, in all of the classes."
In colonial days, the schools were often kept by men and women who spent a lifetime in the service. They believed in the adage, "Spare the rod, and spoil the child." Punish- ment for wrong-doing was severe. It is related of a fa- mous New-London schoolmaster, by the name of Dow, that he had two strips of board joined flatwise by a hinge, and those who broke the rules of the school were compelled to put their fingers between the two boards, which were then drawn close together, and fastened securely. While there is much to admire in the methods of family and business training employed in earlier times, it must be conceded, that, in the matter of education, the majority of the people were satisfied with very slender acquirements. The School Fund, created in 1795, from the sale of Western lands be- longing to the State, did not for many years prove a bless- ing. The money given to the towns was so used that the people lost their interest in common schools. Teachers were very poorly paid, and there was little inducement to make it more than a temporary profession. Increasing dissatis- faction on the part of those who desired their children to have better advantages, led to the organization of academies and select schools in many of the rural towns, as well as villages and cities. In 1837 it was found that not less than ten thousand children of more wealthy and educated fami-
307
PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CONNECTICUT.
lies were receiving instruction in these private schools, at a cost considerably greater than the amount expended for the remaining sixty or seventy thousand children. This con- dition of affairs, in connection with the fact that six thou- sand children of proper age were growing up in absolute ignorance, aroused attention. The efforts then made to bring about a change for the better, was the beginning of a movement that has gone steadily forward until the present
THE MORGAN SCHOOL: CLINTON.3
time. Whatever may have been the former shortcomings of the public schools, it can now be truthfully said, that as re- gards buildings, apparatus, and qualifications of teachers, the schools in the cities and larger villages are equal to the best in the country. It is matter for regret that this cannot be said of a large proportion of the schools in the rural districts. Very much of the advance that has been made in the methods of teaching and conducting the public schools of the Commonwealth, is due to the influence of the nor-
308
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
mal school,1 and the ability and faithfulness of the men who have had in charge the interests of education during the past half-century. In 1838 Henry Barnard entered upon his duties as the first State Superintendent of Schools. His ser- vices gave a new impulse to the cause of education. Among his co-laborers the names of David N. Camp and Charles Northend deserve special mention. In 1865 the State Board of Education was organized, and Daniel C. Gilman was elected secretary. He was succeeded in 1867 by Birdsey G. Northrop, who held the office until January, 1883, when the present secretary, Charles D. Hine, entered upon the duties of this position. All of these eminent instructors have done much to advance the cause of education throughout the Commonwealth.
1 THE STATE NORMAL SCHOOL was opened in 1850. Under its present effi- cient management, it is doing excellent work in preparing teachers for their pro- fession.
2 THE HORNBOOK, as shown on page 302, was made of a thin board with a handle. The leaflet, containing the let- ters of the alphabet, with the Lord's Prayer, and other sentences, was fastened on the board, and covered with a piece of polished horn. Usually the handle had a hole in it, so that it could be slung to the girdle of the scholar.
3 THE MORGAN SCHOOL, at Clinton, is a noble illustration of what a wise lib- erality can do for a country town and village community. Charles Morgan,
a native of Clinton, had gained large wealth as a merchant and ship-owner in New York. In 1869 Mr. Morgan decided to establish a free high school in the vil- lage of his birth. The beautiful school- building was opened in 1871, and every child in the town may enjoy its advan- tages. Before his death, in 1878, the gifts of Mr. Morgan to the institution amounted to over three hundred thou- saud dollars. This endowment has en- abled the trustees to sustain an academic department of the highest order, that is patronized by a large number of schol- ars from neighboring towns. The school is equipped with excellent scientific ap- paratus, and has a valuable library.
1
HIGHER SCHOOLS OF LEARNING.
309
CHAPTER XLIX.
YALE UNIVERSITY.
INTHE early history of Yale College, from its foundation at Saybrook until it was removed to New Haven, has already been given .* After the school was fairly settled
YALE-COLLEGE BUILDINGS. " The Old Brick Row."
upon the site where it has since remained, it continued to prosper, until, before the close of the century, the number of students had risen to one hundred and thirty. The first building erected for the use of the college was of wood, three stories high, containing, besides chambers for the scholars, a * See page 109.
310
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
hall, library, and kitchen. In 1752, South Middle College was erected with funds that were secured from the proceeds of a lottery, and by a gift, from the Assembly, of money that had come into the colonial treasury from the sale of a French prize that had been captured by a Connecticut frigate. The other buildings in the line known as "the old Brick Row," were mostly erected before the opening of the present century.
For many years, instruction was given by the president, aided by tutors, whose number varied from one to five. The study of theology was made prominent, and a large 4 proportion of the graduates entered the ministry. College customs in colonial times reflected the aristocratic distinc- tions that marked society. As late as 1767 the names of the students were arranged, not alphabetically, but according to rank. Undergraduates could not wear their hats in the front door-yard of the house of the president or a professor, and were compelled to "uncover within ten rods of the person of the president, eight rods of the professor, and five rods of a tutor." A freshman could not play with any member of an upper class without being asked, and a sophomore might discipline a freshman after obtaining leave of a senior.
The students addressed each other in Latin. The disci- pline of the school was enforced by a system of fines ; but freshmen and incipient sophomores sometimes, with much formality, were cuffed or boxed on the ear by the president in the chapel.
From 1739 to 1766 Thomas Clap was the president of the college. His administration was sharply criticised because of his action towards students and teachers who sympathized with the revival movement which followed the preaching of Whitefield. The Assembly at one time was asked to inter- fere with the management of the school : but President Clap, in a masterly argument, convinced them that the corporation was independent of the State in its conduct of the institution.
311
YALE UNIVERSITY.
It is put on record by those who knew him best, that he was a " truly great man, a gentleman of superior natural genius, most assiduous application, and indefatigable industry."
During the Revolution, the college was almost broken up. The remnant of the sophomore and junior classes were quartered at Glastonbury, and the freshmen at Farm- ington. A few seniors remained at New Haven, under tutor Dwight. Noah Webster was then at Yale, and relates, that, when General Washington passed through New Haven on the way to Cambridge to take command of the American army, he was in- vited to see a company of students perform their military exercises. Having expressed his gratification at the manner they acquitted them- selves, they escorted the general " as far as Neck Bridge," Web- ster playing the fife. In July, 1779, New Haven was invaded by the British. Among those who shouldered their muskets, and did EZRA STILES. all they could to resist the enemy, was the venerable ex-president Daggett. He was taken prisoner, and received injuries that hastened his death.
The officers of the college suffered great inconvenience from the depreciation of the Continental currency, and were compelled to eke out a living by payments for services, made in beef, pork, wheat, and Indian corn.
Ezra Stiles, the president of Yale from 1777 to 1795, was one of the best scholars of his day. As an antiquarian and Orientalist, he had no peer in the country. His restless mind was interested in almost every department of learning. In the midst of his varied researches and official duties, he took an active part in plans for the abolition of the slave-trade.
312
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
It was during the administration of President Stiles, that the State made a liberal grant to the college, in return for which the governor, lieutenant-governor, and six senior senators were made ex-officio members of the corporation. South College, built in 1794, was named Union College in honor of this closer connection between the college and the common- wealth.
It was still the day of small things. Lyman Beecher, who was a student at this time, gives us these reminiscences : " The stairs in the main building were worn nearly through ; the rooms defaced and dirty. As to apparatus, we had a great orrery almost as big as the wheel of an ocean-steamer. It was made to revolve, but was all rusty : nobody ever started it. There was a four-foot telescope, all rusty ; nobody ever looked through it, and, if they did, not to edification. There was an air-pump so out of order that a mouse under the receiver would live as long as Methuselah. There was a prism, and an elastic hoop to illustrate centrifugal force. This was all the apparatus the college had."
Upon the death of Dr. Stiles, in 1795, Timothy Dwight became president. Under his guidance, the college made rapid advancement. His strong intellect and executive ability shaped and directed the affairs of the institution at a critical period. The impress of his marked personality and religious spirit was of a deep and abiding character, and it was his privilege to broaden the foundations of the college that has become the great university over which his grandson and namesake now presides.
The Medical School, organized in 1810, was the first pro- fessional school connected with the college. The Department of Theology was established in 1822, and the Law School two years afterwards. The Divinity School has been especially prosperous, and from its beginning has been favored with the services of teachers of distinguished ability.
Very early in his administration, President Dwight gave
313
YALE UNIVERSITY.
attention to the better equipment of the college in the Depart- ment of Natural Science. It was through his encouragement that Benjamin Silliman prepared himself for the distinguished service as a teacher and writer that reflected so much credit on the college in the early part of this century. In 1847 the Scientific School was instituted that has now become the largest department of the university, after the academical. This school bears the honored name of Joseph E. Sheffield. whose donations for its benefit amounted to upwards of half a million of dollars.
The work of developing the plans inaugurated by Dr. Dwight was carried forward with eminent ability under the long and prosperous ad- ministrations of Presidents Day and Woolsey. From the thousands of students who graduated from Yale during the years in which these distinguished men were at its head, there has come testimony, in innumerable ways, that the char- BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. acter of these Christian scholars and their associates has been one of the chief causes of the valuable results accomplished by their Alma Mater.
Upon the resignation of Dr. Woolsey, in 1871, Noah Porter was elected president of the college. Like his prede- cessors, he had been long connected with the institution as a professor. No higher honor can be paid to this gifted scholar than to say that his administration was worthy of the best traditions of the college. When he resigned his office, in 1886, the college had long been in reality a university. The growth and advance of its professional, scientific, and art departments, demanded the change in name and organic relation that should bring them into the most close and vital
+
314
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
relation. Naturally, the names of distinguished scholars and teachers from every part of the country were mentioned in connection with the vacant presidency. The choice, with singular unanimity, fell upon Timothy Dwight. For many years an honored professor in the Divinity School, respected for his scholarly acquirements and executive ability, and beloved by all who know him, he has entered upon his arduous duties at the head of the great school of learning of which Connecticut has such reason to be proud.
The history of Yale University is in many ways identified with that of the country. The list of her graduates contains the names of men who have been eminent in all the walks of life. As a collegiate school, she furnished instruction to a large number of the most gifted of the ministers of Connec- ticut and New England. At the time of the Revolution, her graduates, with sword and pen, did a noble work. In that band we find the names of Trumbull, Dwight, Humphreys, and Barlow. A little later on, when there came a demand for trained minds in laying the foundations of the govern- ment, this service fell, to a remarkable extent, into the hands of those who had been educated at Yale. John C. Calhoun, a graduate of the college, when a member of the House of Representatives, made the assertion that he had "seen the time when the natives of Connecticut, together with all the graduates of Yale, there collected, wanted only five of being a majority of that body."
In one class alone (1837), are to be found the names of the Honorable William M. Evarts, Chief Justice Waite, Samuel J. Tilden, and Edwards Pierrepont, attorney-general and minis- ter to England under Grant. "In scholarship, Yale is rep- resented by such names as Webster, Worcester, Woolsey, Hadley, and Whitney ; in science and invention by Silliman, Morse, Whitney, Dana, and Chauvenet; in divinity, by Edwards, Hopkins, Emmons, Dwight, and Taylor; in the State and at the bar, by Grimke, Mason, Kent, Calhoun, and Evarts."
315
YALE UNIVERSITY.
This great university has a reputation that gathers within its halls students from every part of the country. Among them are the sons of wealthy and honored parents ; but they, alike with those who are compelled to meet privations in order to secure an education, are measured by standards of char- acter and intellectual ability. There is no boy in Connecti- cut who desires the benefit of a university training, and shows that he has capacities worthy of such opportunities, that need turn away from the doors of Yale.
1 MORRISON R. WAITE was born at Lyme, Nov. 29, 1816. After leaving col- lege, he studied law in his native town; and after his admission to the bar, he re- moved to Ohio. While a resident of Toledo, he declined many nominations to public office, preferring to devote him- self to his profession, in which he built up a large practice in the higher branches of the law. He gained distinguished
honor as one of the counsel of the United States in the Geneva arbitration on the "Alabama " claims. He was president of the Constitutional Convention of Ohio in 1873, and in 1874 was nominated and confirmed as Chief Justice of the United States. Few men have been more uni- versally esteemed by the nation than this great jurist.
316
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
CHAPTER L. WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY.
THE early history of the Methodist-Episcopal Church in the United States is full of romantic interest. Very few of the evangelistic preachers who kindled the flame of spiritual
-14
EFF
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY, MIDDLETOWN.
fervor that swept over every part of the country in the open- ing years of this century, had received the advantages of a liberal education. The quickening of the religious life, how- ever, soon developed in the best and strongest minds among them a desire for intellectual discipline and knowledge. This interest increased with the rapid growth of the denomi-
317
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY.
nation, and the opening of preparatory schools in New England led to the discussion of plans for founding a college in the same section.
The vacant buildings of a once flourishing military school at Middletown were offered for sale at an almost nominal sum. A casual suggestion that they might be purchased for the use of the projected institution, resulted in a serious agitation of the plan. Further competition for the location of the college led the owners of the property to deed it free to the Methodist conferences inter- ested in the matter, with the under- standing that an endowment fund of forty thousand dollars should be raised. Nearly eighteen thousand dollars of this amount was promptly subscribed by citizens of Middle- town.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.