USA > Delaware > History of the state of Delaware, Volume I > Part 28
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at the corner of Franklin street and Pennsylvania avenue, and here, with improved facilities, since that time has been con- ducted an educational institution which ranks with the best in the country of the same class. Faithful effort on the part of the principals has brought a fair measure of reward.
William S. McNair established in 1878, in the Institute Building, what was known as the " Brandywine Academy." It met with some success, and in a few years moved to the Harkness building, but it was destined to be short-lived, and was discontinued about the year 1882.
GOLDEY COMMERCIAL COLLEGE.
This institution, which has grown to large proportions, and which has become one of the largest and most prosperous com- mercial colleges in the country, was founded by Harry S. Goldey in 1886. It was an entirely new venture for the City of Wilmington, and Mr. Goldey received but little encourage- ment from the leading business men whom he consulted prior to launching his enterprise. But Mr. Goldey proved himself a man of unusual vim and energy and the college has been a success since the day it opened.
Every year since it started has shown hundreds of students in attendance, the year last past showing a total enrollment of over seven hundred, and it is marvelous what a demand exists for those who graduate in the commercial and shorthand departments. For several years the demand has greatly ex- ceeded the supply, a sure evidence of the substantial growth of the business interests of this city and vicinity.
Founded in 1886, the institution was incorporated under the laws of Delaware in 1895, as the" Goldey Wilmington Commercial and Shorthand College." H. S. Goldey has been at the head and front of the college since the beginning, serv- ing as president since its incorporation. R. J. Maclean has been the efficient manager of the college since 1898, and W. E. Douglass and J. E. Fuller have served as principals for eight years, the former in the commercial department,
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and the latter in the shorthand department. The college has large and commodious quarters in the Wilmington Institute Building.
THE WILMINGTON BUSINESS SCHOOL.
The Wilmington Business School was opened August 28, 1900, in three small rooms in the Bayard Annex, at No. 1 East Ninth street. The founder of the school was William H. Beacom, who had been an instructor in the Goldey College for six years. Mr. Beacom was a trained teacher in com- mercial lines, and came to Wilmington in 1894 from Illinois.
Seven students appeared at the opening, but the attendance grew so rapidly that the principal found new and larger quarters necessary, and in March, 1901, the school was moved to the MeVey Building at the northeast corner of Eighth and Market streets, and here it occupied the entire third floor until March, 1907, when the second removal was made to the new DuPont Building at Tenth and Market streets.
The school has grown into an institution that enjoys and merits the confidence and support of the people of Wilmington and it has succeeded beyond the expectations of its founder. The six years of its existence have shown an average yearly enrollment of nearly five hundred. The graduates have found employment readily, and the service rendered by the graduates has attested the efficiency of the work of the school. Mr. Beacom has always personally conducted the commercial department, and in the shorthand department Mrs. Beacom has been in control. In addition to the principal and his wife there are eight assistant instructors.
THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
The public schools in the City of Wilmington until the year 1829 were part and parcel of the free school system of the state. In the year 1829 the City of Wilmington was divided into ten school districts, and so continued until 1833, when by Act of the General Assembly, School Districts from num-
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bers nine to eighteen, inclusive, were formed into a united school district, and provision made for the election of two School Commissioners from each of these districts, to whom the government and control of the schools of the city were entrusted. Soon after the first regular school house was built at the southwest corner of Sixth and French streets, and was known as No. 1. It continued to be used for school purposes until the erection of the larger school house in the same block, on the easterly side of French street in 1871, also known as No. 1.
In 1852 the act was passed providing for the first Board of Public Education for the City of Wilmington, and under it, the following were elected as members, of the first Board, Samuel Hilles, Jesse Sharpe, Azariah H. Quinby, Robert Cars- well, David C. Wilson, Dr. John F. Wilson, John H. Stidham, J. Morton Poole, Dr. Arthur H. Grimshaw, John Rudolph, Edward Moore, and James Webb. Samuel Hilles was elected president, but he resigned as a member of the board, and Judge Willard Hall was elected in his place, and also elected president of the board, a position which he held continuously until 1870. Judge Hall was therefore not only the father of the state school system, but the head and front of the city system, rendering most valuable services to the city in the cause of public education.
A second public school was early established on Twelfth street between Market and Orange streets, and called No. 2. It continued until the new No. 2 was built in 1856 at the northeast corner of Eleventh and Washington streets. The second-story rooms of the water department building at the northeast corner of Tenth and King streets were donated by the city for school purposes, and that was known as No. 3. In 1857, a large new school house was built on the easterly side of Jefferson street above Second, and called No. 3, super- seding the carlier school of the same number. The first school house built of any pretension was No. 4, on Washing- ton street between Second and Third streets. It was com-
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pleted in the fall of 1852, and Albert J. Webster became the first principal of the boys' department, and Laura A. Osgood principal of the girls' department, but in 1855, Miss Osgood was made principal of both departments, and continued in charge of No. 4 for nearly thirty years. She was a most capable and excellent woman, and rendered invaluable aid to the work of education in the city.
In 1853 the city granted the use of the building on Sixth street, between Market and King streets, (still standing, and occupied by the tax receivers and the Board of Public Educa- tion), for school purposes, and School No. 5 was opened there in 1853. The later No. 5 was erected on Walnut street near Thirteenth, in 1876.
No. 6, on Walnut street above Third, was built in 1853. Two years later the school building at the southwest corner of Fifth and Pine streets was completed, and called No. 7. A primary school was conducted for a few years in a building on Tenth street, near Orange street previously known as the " bowling alley," and afterward used as a school for colored children.
For nearly ten years, there was a decided cessation in the building of school houses. The school report published in 1861 shows that in that year eight school houses were in use in the city, six of which belonged to the board.
Schoolhouse No. S, at the northeast corner of Seventh and Spruce streets was built in 1863. The Taylor and Jackson Academy at the corner of Eighth and Wollaston streets, was purchased by the board in 1876, and was thereafter known as public school No. 9. In 1895, an entirely new building was erected on this site, and is now known as the " Wollaston School," and it accommodates the only training school for teachers under the control of the board. No. 10, at Adams and Elm streets, No. 11, at Ninth and Scott streets, and No. 12, at Twenty-second and Market streets, all primary schools, were built in 1869. No. 13, at Seventeenth and Union streets, built in 1888, did not immediately follow ; a school under
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that number was conducted for some years in a rented build- ing. No. 14, on Claymont street near Lobdell, built in 1872, was the first city school established south of the Christiana River, and No. 15, at Third and Harrison streets, was built in 1874. No. 16, on Orange street, above Twelfth, was built for the use of colored children by friends of that race within a few years after the close of the Civil War, and was at first known as the "Howard School," being named for General O. O. Howard, who served in the Civil War, and who after the war was in charge of the Freedman's Bureau at Washington, an institution designed by the general government to assist in an educational way the colored people of the late slave states. This school was formally taken in charge by the Board of Public Education in 1873, and marked the beginning of the assumption of control of the colored schools, in the city, by the board. The building since 1874 has belonged to the board, having been materially enlarged and improved in 1887.
No. 17, at Sixteenth and Claymont streets, was built in 1883. No. 18, the second school for colored pupils, at Town- send and B streets, was built in 1882. No. 19, at Oak and Harrison streets, and No. 20, at Tenth and Spruce streets, were built the same year. No. 21, at Fifth and Scott streets, the third school for colored pupils, was built in 1891. No. 22 is on Second street, near Washington, and has been used for school purposes for twenty years or more. It is not a regular school building however. No. 23, at Thirtieth and Madison streets, was established in 1893, the building formerly used as a Presbyterian church being remodeled for school pur- poses ; and No. 24, at Fourteenth and Washington streets, known as the " Washington School," followed in 1893. No. 25, on Bayard avenue, between Third and Fourth streets, and No. 26, on Thatcher street near Vandever avenue, were both built in 1890. No. 27, on Rockford lane near Park avenue, came under the control of the board by the extension of the city limits in 1895. It had formerly been the district school for the Rockford district.
WILMINGTON HIGH SCHOOL. BUILT A. D. 1901.
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No. 28, now conducted as a grammar school, was built as a high school in 1885. It is located at the northwest corner of Eighth and Adams streets, and continued in use as the high school until 1901, when the new high school, on Delaware avenue, was occupied. No. 2S is now known as the Willard Hall grammar school.
In the early days of the board, the most advanced pupils were for many years taught in old Schoolhouse No. 1, at Sixth and French streets, so that it was to all intents and pur- poses the first high school. Later No. 4 was the most ad- vanced school, and so continued until the erection of the new Schoolhouse No. 1 on French street between Fifth and Sixth streets in 1871. This marked the introduction of male prin- cipals and the beginning of a real high school, a step in ad- vance of the grammar grades that had been followed thereto- fore. The high school continued in Schoolhouse No. 1 until 1885, when the new school building (now No. 28) was com- pleted at Eighth and Adams streets. Here it remained until 1901, when the large and commodious high school building on Delaware avenue near Monroe street was built, and in that year the high school department took possession of the new building. The total cost of the present high school, lot and building, was $250,000.
There have been seven principals of the high school since 1871, as follows :
Loring H. Barnum 1871-1872 William W. Birdsall 1882-1885
Alfred F. Tenney 1872-1873 Thomas L. Graham 1885-1887
Stansbury J. Willey 1873-1882 A. Henry Berlin 1887-
Charles D. Raine
1882-1882
The superintendents of Wilmington city schools have been as follows :
David W. Harlan 1871-1900 George W. Twitmyer 1900-
The following is a complete list of the presidents of the Board of Public Education :
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Presidents of the Board of Public Education.
Willard Hall
1852-1870
Charles Elton Buck 1876-1878
William R. Bullock
1870-1872
Henry Eckel
1878-1880
Arthur H. Grimshaw
.
1872-1873
Henry C. Conrad
1880-1882
William S. Hilles
1873-1874
Charles Baird
1882-1897
Evan G. Shortlidge
1874-1876
Evan G. Shortlidge
1897-
THE FIRE DEPARTMENT.
The City of Wilmington can boast of its fire department. It is recognized as one of the most complete and efficient of the volunteer fire departments in the country. While paid fire departments have been generally adopted by the leading cities, yet the volunteer department of this city has rendered such satisfactory service that no change has been seriously considered.
The Friendship Fire Company is the oldest in the city. It was instituted as early as 1775, by a number of the most prominent citizens of the town, and the regulations of those early days provided that each member should furnish two leather buekcts and a large wicker basket. It was obligatory upon each member to place a lighted candle in the window of his house when he started for a fire. If he passed the house of a fellow-member, and saw no light in the latter's window, it was his duty to stop and awaken his fellow-mem- ber. The members ranged themselves in a row, and the buckets, filled with water from a spring or pump, were passed from hand to hand. This primitive method was succeeded by the hand engine, the first engine appearing in the city being purchased by the Friendship Company about 1790.
The first engine house of this company was on the south side of Fifth street between Shipley and Orange streets. The Friendship Company was incorporated January 15, 1805, and shortly afterward its engine house was moved to tlie northeast corner of Seventh and Shipley streets. In 1825 its house was moved to the east side of Market street, between Sixth and Seventh streets, about the location now occupied by the Smith Building, and known as No. 610. The membership at that
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time embraced the leading and most substantial citizens of the town. Carson Wilson acted as president for several years, his son, David C. Wilson, afterwards Sheriff of New Castle County, and Mayor of Wilmington, served as secretary. George Jones, a prosperous jeweler and clockmaker, and a leading elder in Hanover Presbyterian Church, was treasurer. In 1845 the engine house was again moved, this time to Orange street, west side, above Tenth, and in 1859 the large and imposing fire-engine house at Tenth and Shipley streets was built, and continued as the home of this company until 1906. In 1907 a new house was built on Tatnall street above Delaware avenue.
The Reliance Fire Company was the second company organ- ized. Its organization dates from 1796, and it was incorpor- ated January 2, 1802. Like its predecessor, the Friendship, it started as a bucket company, but as early as 1810 had pro- cured a hand engine. Among its early members were James Wilson and Robert Porter, two of the pioneer Wilmington printers, and later, Dr. Henry F. Askew, William H. Naff, Ziba Ferris and Edward Bringhurst, all prominent business men, were influential members. Henry H. J. Naff, the editor of the Delaware State Journal, was president for over twenty years. The company was located first at the corner of Fifth and Orange streets, and from that location went to Fifth street between Walnut and Poplar, and in 1886, the present hand- some house of the company at the southeast corner of Fourth and Lombard streets, was erected, and since that time has been occupied by it. The motto of the company is Non nobis solum, " not laboring for ourselves alone."
The Brandywine Fire Company, organized early in 1800, had its headquarters in Brandywine village, just north of the Brandywine Creek. Its membership came largely from the flouring mills and cooper shops in that section. It was pros- perous for several years, but the organization of the Phoenix Fire Company, in 1825, had the effect of weakening the Brandywine Company, and shortly after the Phoenix got
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under way, the effects of the Brandywine Company were turned over to the Phoenix, and the Brandywine relinquished business.
The need of a fire company in the westerly and central parts of the Ninth Ward became apparent as the building enter- prises known as Eastlake, Creston and North Side developed, and in 1901, a new Brandywine Fire Company was organized, and incorporated on April 11, 1902, and a handsome fire house for its accommodation erected at the northwest corner of Twenty-fifth and Market streets. The people of the neigh- borhood gave it cordial support, and especial credit for the institution of the new company is due to Cornelius J. Horri- gan, who was untiring in his efforts to make the Brandywine Company a success. He has served as president since its organization.
The Delaware Fire Company was organized in 1819. Among the early members were Vincent Gilpin, John Mc- Lear, Lewis Rumford, Dell Noblitt and Henry J. Pepper. The latter was the first president. The organizers asked for private subscriptions, and also requested an appropriation from the Borough Council. In both they were successful. The company for sixty years had its engine house on Sixth street near King, on part of the land now occupied by the street and sewer department building. About the year 1880, the new house of the company was built on the east side of French street, below Sixth, and here it has since been located. The Delaware has always been one of the most substantial in the department.
As the northeastern section of the city built up, the need of a fire company in that section became apparent, and in 1825 the residents in the vicinity of the Brandywine mills held a meeting which resulted in the organization of the Phoenix Fire Company. It was instituted with about thirty members, James Canby being the first president, John H. Price secre- tary, and Samuel S. Poole treasurer. All of these parties were interested in the milling business on the Brandywine. The
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assets of the first Brandywine Fire Company were turned over to the new Phoenix Company, and the borough council voted the new company a donation of one hundred dollars. Very soon a hand engine was procured, which served the company for many years.
The engine house of the company was first located on the west side of French street, between Twelfth and Thirteenth streets. It was a rented house, and the bell hung in the forks of a willow tree which stood on the curb in front. The com- pany in 1835 bought a lot and built an engine house on French street, between Fourteenth and Fifteenth streets. Here it continued until 1869, when the present quarters of the com- pany at the northeast corner of Twelfth and King streets were procured. At first the company occupied only the corner property, but in 1897 the adjoining property was purchased, and the quarters of the company extended, so that at present the Phoenix has one of the largest and most commodious fire engine houses in the city.
The Water Witch Fire Company, instituted in 1833, was for a period of fifty-two years one of the most active and in- fluential companies in the fire department of the city. At first it occupied a small frame building on the northerly side of Fifth street, between Market and Shipley streets, and its bell was hung on a pole in front of the engine house. In 1840 the company built a two-story engine house on Shipley street, between Fifth and Sixth streets, on the site of the present Red Men's Hall. A few years later the building was raised a story, and a bell tower built on top. Among the early members of the company, who were influential citizens, may be mentioned Francis Robinson, Edward A. Wilson, Cyrus Pyle, Joshua L. Pusey and Henry R. Bringhurst. In 1885 the original company disbanded. A few years later, in 1891, a new fire company, organized in the extreme northwestern section of the city, locally known as the " Forty Acres," adopted the old name of Water Witch, and has since maintained itself on Gilpin avenue, near Lincoln street, and is now one of the most efficient companies in the department.
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One of the earliest and best fire companies in the southern part of the city is the Fame Hose Company, organized on New Year's day of 1839. A charter was obtained in 1841. The company maintained a hose carriage only until 1868, when a steam fire-engine was added to its equipment. Among its early members were some of the mnost substantial of the business men of Wilmington, among whom were Henry G. Banning, George Richardson, Bauday Simmons, Samuel N. Pusey, Charles Warner, John A. Griffin, John C. Patterson and James C. Aiken. It has always been located on Second street, between Shipley and Orange streets, at first on the upper side, and later on the lower side.
The Washington Fire Company followed closely after the Fame. It was organized in 1840, and was soon equipped with a hose carriage and hand engine, the latter being built by Betts, Pusey & Harlan of this city, and doing valiant service for the company from its organization until 1866, when it was succeeded by a steam fire-engine. The first engine house of the Washington was a one-story frame on East Sixth be- tween Market and King. This was replaced in 1852 by a three-story brick building erected by the company, and used by it until 1873. It is the same building at present occupied by the City Treasurer and City Auditor. In 1873 the build- ing was sold to the city, and the company bought a lot on the west side of French street, between Third and Fourth streets, and there erected a large and expensive fire-engine house which has since accomodated it.
The Weccacoe Fire Company, located at the corner of Jack- son and Second streets, was organized in 1869. It became a necessity through the rapid growth of the city to the south- west. Its first headquarters were in a small frame building on Liberty street, near Maryland avenue, and from there it moved in 1872 to the east side of Jackson street, between Front and Second. Its present building was erected in 1886. At first it was only a hose company, but in 1875 it was incorporated as the Weccacoe Steam Fire Engine Company No. 8, which name it has since borne.
e
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The Liberty Fire Company was established in 1891. It was the first company located south of the Christiana river, and is comfortably housed in a commodious building erected soon after its organization at the corner of New Castle avenue and A street. It has a prosperous membership, and has made an enviable record.
The Union Fire Company was organized in 1902 with a view to the better protection from: fire of the extreme south- western section of the city. It occupied at first a temporary building on Union street near Sixth, but after it was recognized by city council, and given an appropriation in 1903, it moved to its present quarters at the southwest corner of Lancaster avenue and Union street. Its membership is active, and it gives evidence of long life and in the near future it is likely to erect and occupy a substantial and well-equipped home of its own.
The latest acquisition to the fire department of Wilmington is the Independence Fire Company of the Ninth ward. The residents of that part of the Ninth ward, lying east of the Eleventh street bridge, appreciating the rapid growth of that section, and realizing that large and important business interests were located there, urged the establishment of a fire company in that locality. Francis S. Bradley, possibly the most energetic and public-spirited citizen of that section, headed the movement, and in spite of serious obstacles and many discouragements, he persevered, and in the end won because he deserved to win. The company was organized October 21, 1901, and was incorporated just a month later. Without any aid except that contributed by the membership, and from private sources, the company was maintained for four years as an independent organization, outside of the reg- ular fire department. By a vote of the city council on Sep- tember 7, 1905, the company was recognized and adopted as a member of the department, making the Independence Fire Company the twelfth company in the department as at present constituted-last but not least in an organization that is
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recognized as thoroughly efficient, and a credit to the city which supports and honors it.
Chief Engineers of the Fire Department.
Henry W. Perkins
1868-1870
Edward A. Robinson
1890-1892
Samuel W. Springer
1870-1872
Dennis S. Shields
1892-1894
George McCall
1872-1876
John H. Walker
1894-1896
William Hanna
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