USA > Maryland > Talbot County > History of Talbot county, Maryland, 1661-1861, Volume II > Part 46
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This prank of Jacob Gibson had a very interesting sequel. As has been before mentioned the British fleet had command of the Chesapeake
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bay. They were capturing and destroying all the crafts plying upon its waters, carrying off the cattle and other live stock for the use of the fleet and threatening all towns which were accessible by water. St. Michaels was one of the places which were to be visited with destruction and perhaps rapine. The means at the disposal of the State for the defence of her coasts were sadly deficient. There was not either a sufficiency of men, nor of arms to equip those ready to serve in the militia. Of heavy arms, in particular, there was a woful deficiency. Artillery companies were unable to procure cannon. In St. Michaels there was an organization of this kind, at the date of these transactions, under the command of Capt. William Dodson, but it was either without guns entirely, or was inadequately supplied. Mr. Gibson was informed of the inability of the State to furnish these arms and he appreciated the necessity of these being furnished to the citizen soldiers in and near St. Michaels, for its defence. He was an ardent advocate of the war, and an earnest supporter of its prosecution to a favorable end. He now saw an opportunity to justify his partisanship, gratify his pa- triotism, and pacify his offended fellow-citizens of St. Michaels. He accordingly while in Baltimore, immediately after the affair just related, purchased two cannon, and had them transported around the head of the bay, to avoid capture by the British whose blockade was so strict that few vessels escaped. These cannon he presented to the town of St. Michaels-an instrument of war, as a peace offering. There is no doubt the gift was intended to conciliate and placate the offended people of that place. Although in his handbill Mr. Gibson rather resents the imputation that this was his motive.
It is pleasing to know that the ill feeling which was engendered or fostered, by this affair, between Jacob Gibson and the people of St. Michaels, and which subsisted for a long time, notwithstanding the gift of the guns, has not been transmitted to their posterity, and that a grandson of that Jacob Gibson, who has inherited all his ancestor's remarkable vigor of intellect, and has only lost that ancestor's brusque- ness of manner to acquire a mildness and gentleness peculiarly his own, now enjoys the confidence, respect and affection of the descendents of the angry citizens of 1813, and now ministers with unsurpassed skill to the alleviation of the sufferings of those whose fathers were once ready for a harmless joke to take the life of his high spirited progenitor.
Of the incidents here narrated it is proper to say, they are thoroughly authentic; and although they have never before been published, at least in the connection here presented, they may be relied upon as
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strictly veritable, having been derived from sources worthy of all cre- dence. Care has been taken to confirm tradition by record, so that an amusing story might be made a valuable contribution to the annals of this county. Unfortunately he was unable to procure carriages for these guns, and as there was pressing and immediate need for them, they were rudely mounted upon cart or wagon wheels, and did good serv- ice on the ever memorable 10th of August, 1813, when the British made their long expected attack on St. Michaels, and were so gallantly repelled. On this occasion they were severally commanded by John Thompson and Wrightson Jones, who continued to fire them as long as the enemy was within range. Subsequently these guns were properly and handsomely mounted upon carriages. For many years, for want of an armory, they were placed in the unused market house of St. Michaels, which stood in the middle of St. Mary's square, in the centre of the town, and were only brought to fire an occasional salute upon the fourth of July, or in honor of some political victory of either party. When the market-house was converted into a school-house, the gifts of Jacob Gibson were transferred to the armory at Easton, where they remained until our great civil war. On Sunday, June 9, 1861, by order of His Excellency Thomas Hollyday Hicks, Governor of the State, William T. Roberts, Esq., Armorer at Easton, delivered to Col. Abel Smith, of the New York volunteers, acting under Gen. Banks, all the arms belonging to the State in the Armory, and among these were the two six-pounders presented by Mr. Gibson to the people of St. Michaels. These cannon were taken by Col. Smith to Fort McHenry, where they probably are to this day, as their antiquated pattern, it is likely, pre- vented their employment in our late contest. Thus it has come about that on the grand moving drama of our national history the amusing comedy of Jacob Gibson frightening the people of Bayside with his red handkerchief, and empty barrel, connects itself with the bloody tragedy of our civil war.
THE SCHOOLS OF TALBOT
EARLY SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL MASTERS
I
The preparation of a complete history of education in Maryland is a task as yet imperfectly performed. Indeed, it can hardly be said to have been seriously attempted; the few sketches of the subject that have been made having no pretentions to thoroughness. A sense of disqualification for the work, more, perhaps, than a perception of its arduous nature, has deterred every one from the undertaking; for a rare combination of qualities are requisite for its due accom- plishment. That labor must be done by some one who unites in himself the industry of the antiquarian, the insight of the philos- opher, and the ardor of the enthusiast. In the vast mass of irrel- evant matter which would have to be subjected to analysis, the historic chemist would often have to be contented with the discovery of mere traces of that for which he sought. These would consist mostly of obscure hints, or minute notices, scattered here and there in public records of one kind or another-in church registers, legislative proceed- ings, books of law, family memoranda, and files of news papers. These sources of information would have to be searched with the patient, but sharp, eye of the archaeologist, who gropes in rubbish for remains of antiquity, and not with the simply curios glance of the dilettante, seeking objects of virtu. And, when all the materials for a history have been collected, the greater labor remains to weave them into one connected and veritable story, that shall relate the rise, the progress and the condition of the schools of Maryland, and that shall describe those influences which have affected them from time to time and in different sections of the province and State, and which has made them what they were or what they are.
As in the greater or more comprehensive panorama of Maryland history, those of her citizens who have taken a prominent part in the conduct of her civil and political affairs, or have made an impression upon her social structure should be delineated for the instruction or the veneration of those coming after, so upon the narrower canvas of this story of her schools, there should be no failure to portray the careers and
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characters of her more distinguished teachers, school officers and promot- ers of her educational interests; for there have been those belonging to each of these classes of educationists in Maryland who are as deserv- ing of historic commemoration as are her statesmen, her jurists, her clergy or her physicians. Who more worthy of honor than he who makes popular government possible, who enlightens the law makers, who prevents religion from lapsing into superstition, and who promotes the moral and intellectual health of the community? But even the diligence of the collector of these materials for a history of schools, coupled, as it may be, with analytic power and constructive ability, will not suffice to make the competent historian unless he be inspired with a love for all that is expressed by the term education-for the objects, the methods, the agencies and the agents. That a historian thus endowed will appear in the future may be confidently expected, for besides con- tinuing to be a matter of the greatest possible individual or personal concern, education has become almost within the recollection of a liv- ing generation a State affair of the weightiest moment, having its admin- istrative staff, its code, its rules and precedents, its courts of original and appellate jurisdiction, and its independent fisc or treasury. More than this, the teachers, from being the most humble of public servitors, without social standing or official recognition, have, as a body, ac- quired that greater consideration and consequence which are due to wider attainments in letters and science, to improved moral worth and to a more extended usefulness, and which are generally conceded to those holding direct relations to the government of the State. A great interest, public and private, like this of education, and one managed or served by a large influential and distinctive class of citizens, men and women-a class, not only of present, but increasing prospective importance and weight cannot long be without a fit historian. In anticipation of his coming, and with a view of aiding him in some small measure, it is now proposed to give an account of the earliest schools and schoolmasters of this county, of which and whom any record or memory remains. This paper will be confined to the time preceding the revolution, and the meagreness of the resources from which it must be compiled will give to it the merit of brevity and the fault of inade- quacy.
The illiterateness of the earliest settlers of this State, this county in- cluded, has afforded a subject of much small wit to those who would ridicule that family pride, which many of our most respectable citizens have felt and sometimes perhaps too plainly exhibited, in their ancestry.
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Those who have nothing to boast of, and others who have something to be ashamed of, in their paternal predecessors, have found some compen- sation, or it may be some revenge, when they could point out, to those among us who a little ostentatiously display their coats of arms, cer- tain rude signs or symbols not recognized either by heraldry or calig- raphy, attached to wills and other instruments of writing of their fore- fathers, in the place where their names should have been subscribed; or, when a neighbor, with a pardonable vanity, displays relics of what he fondly dreams was the former grandeur of his family, in the form of old battered household plate, or faded silk gowns of ancient pattern, the petty malice of those who possess no such memorials of the wealth and fashion of their ancestors is vastly gratified when it can present sam- ples of defective orthography or other evidences of deficient scholar- ship in the script of those who first drank from the silver goblets or urns, or who wore the silken robes. There is probably as much of spite as of truth in the allegation of prevalent ignorance among those who were the permanent and substantial settlers of this province. While there is some ground for the charge, unquestionably there has been much exaggeration of the illiterateness of those who coming to Mary- land first gave tone to society as it was in formation, and who, from the first, were her representatives in whatever distinguished her in man- ners, morals or intelligence. There was a class of emigrants who might be called ignorant. This was that of the indentured servants. But even among the people of this class there were many who enjoyed the advantages of a good elementary education. This is shown by the fact, hereafter to be more fully noticed, that many of the early school teachers were drawn from this very class. But the substantial men who settled the province, who took out patents for lands, or bought them from second hands, and lived upon them, founding families, and attaching themselves to the soil-the real planters, the traders, the pro- fessional men, and even the thrifty mechanics-were in general suf- ficiently well educated to be relieved from the imputation of illiterate- ness, though, most probably, there were exceedingly few who could lay just claim to what might be called high culture. They were cer- tainly well enough educated to know the value of a little learning in the struggle for life, even when that struggle was rather with uncul- tivated nature, as is the case in all new countries, than with man, as it is in the settled States. They did not allow the pressing exigencies of the formation of new homes in the wilderness to prevent them from se- curing to their children, even upon the secluded plantation, such an
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equipment for the contest as is afforded by the possession of the ele- ments of letters and the rudiments of science. As wealth accumulated the education imparted or provided was of a better character. More capable instructors were employed at home, or the sons were sent to the great schools and universities of England. Thus, William Harper, of this county, in his will, dated 1739, makes particular provision, and gives specific directions, for the education of his son, Samuel Clay- land Harper, requiring that his teachers be paid double for his instruc- tion; and that he be trained up to one of the professions. Mr. Har- per appears to have been a man of some fondness for literature, and a friend of schools, for he directed by his will that if his son should die before he should arrive at the age of twenty-one, his library and one- half of his estate should pass to the Talbot County Free School. Mi- chael Howard, Esquire, a prominent lawyer at the bar of this county, who died in 1737, provided for the education of his nephew, Michael William Howard, at the Westminster School and at King's College, Cambridge, England. It may be proper to add that the professional education of many of the lawyers and physicians was received in the old country, before the revolution.
The first schools that were formed in this county and province must have been of an elementary character to correspond with the simple life-wants of the settler. From the circumstances of the planters, it is inferable that they were of a private or domestic kind. The farms were large and widely separated, the population exceedingly sparse, and there were no considerable towns or villages. Consequently neighbor- hood schools, which grew up when these conditions changed, could not be formed. By the more wealthy settlers private tutors were employed, and it is not unlikely the master of the plantation, in many cases, per- mitted the children of his dependents, or of any poor freemen living near him, to enjoy the privileges of instruction by such tutors, for the sake of the advantages that would accrue to his own children by being associated with others while under instruction. The first schools, therefore, in this county, were what may be designated as plantation or home schools, made up of the children of the proprietors, and such others as they might see fit to admit to participate in their benefits. These schools were, of course, of small size, and the instruction im- parted elementary in character.
This system of plantation or home schools continued to be followed for not many years; indeed, it can be said to have entirely disappeared at the present, for private tutors are still employed by those living remote
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from the towns or by those unwilling to send their children to the com- mon schools. But as soon as a sufficient number of settlers had made plantations and homes in any vicinage, schools of another order, but scarcely of a different grade, were instituted. Several neighbors would unite to employ a teacher, and become responsible for his salary. Others were permitted to avail themselves of the services of the master by pay- ing a stipulated fee. Such schools were what have been designated as neighborhood subscription schools. The salary attached to the place of teacher was exceedingly small, but some additional compensation was given in the privilege he enjoyed, though now it would be regarded as a penalty inflicted, of "boarding around" in the families of the chief patrons. This system continued in existence down to the time when the State gave support to the public schools; and under it many of those school houses which are still in existence, or those which immediately preceded them upon the same sites, were built. Even after the State and county had begun to give assistance to the schools, it was custom- ary for the neighborhoods to contribute a sum for the increase of the teachers' salaries. In these neighborhood subscription schools many persons still living received all the instruction in letters they ever ob- tained. Some of them were excellent, and all of them useful.
Still another class of schools was formed as soon as the density of population, the increase of wealth and refinement, and the consequent demand for better and higher instruction justified its appearance. This was the class of private schools-or those in which the master assumed all the responsibility and demanded for his services a stipulated fee from such as placed their children under his care. These often flourished side by side with the subscription schools, and sometimes took their places. As their success depended solely upon the character and abili- ties of the several teachers, the masters were generally men of a better order, in both their moral, intellectual and professional qualifications. These schools pretended to advance the pupil beyond the simple ele- ments of learning, and to give him an initiation, at least, into a critical study of his own language, and into applied mathematics. In some cases, too, the Latin and Greek languages, in their elements, made up a portion of the course of study. It is hardly necessary to say that schools of this kind have had a continued existence down to the pres- ent day, though the excellence of the schools supported by the State and county has very nearly caused their extinction. They survive in but one school, or, perhaps, two schools for boys, and a few schools for girls within the limits of Talbot.
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HISTORY OF TALBOT COUNTY
Of another class of schools, namely those which would be now des- ignated as denominational schools, we find traces in the early records of the county. The clergy of the Church of England as established in Maryland, or at least the better and more reputable of them, mani- fested considerable interest in the cause of popular education. The Bishop of London, under whose ecclesiastical administration the church in this province was placed, instituted inquiries through his commis- saries, from time to time, respecting the existence of parochial schools; but the responses to his queries, as far as they have survived, do not indicate that any such schools ever had an existence in this county. The Talbot County Free School that was established under the law of 1723, of which an account has already been given in a previous con- tribution, would not fall into this class, for, although the rector of the parish in which it was placed was always the chairman of the board of visitors, and many of the vestrymen of the same parish were mem- bers of that board, it is very certain that the school was not under the official control of the ecclesiastical authorities; nor was the school of a grade to be classed as a parish school, though some charity pupils were doubtless received, in consideration of the partial support it received from the public funds. Nor was the charity-working school of Parson Bacon, established in 1753, of which also a full account has been given in these contributions, properly a parochial school, for neither was it con- trolled by any parochial body. It is believed, however, that not unfre- quently the clerks or curates of the parishes in Talbot taught in these schools or others, for the purpose of eking out their slender stipends, and thus a religious influence was extended over such as they had charge of. At a later day the clergymen of the Church of England were among the most efficient teachers in the county. The Friends, or Quakers, the only other denomination that had organized congregations within this county until within a few years of the revolution, very early manifested a deep "concern" in the matter of education. The minutes of their meetings indicate this solicitude. There is no doubt that they had, at a very early day, their denominational schools, which probably were held in their meeting houses, though it is proper to say this last state- ment is purely conjectural. Later they had houses for the uses of their schools.
Reference has already been made to the charity-working school of Mr. Bacon. This was an attempt to introduce into Maryland a class of schools which had been very successful in England. It was the only one of its kind in the province. It was supported by private annual
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THE SCHOOLS OF TALBOT
subscriptions and benefactions, and was designed for the education of the poor only. It not only gave instruction in letters, but also attempted the training of its pupils in some useful employment-an educational idea revived in most recent times. In other words, it was a manual labor school. One of its most curious provisions was that for the ad- mission of negro children. A full and detailed account of this school may be found in the Easton Star of February and March of the present year.
Another class of schools was represented in this county by the Tal- bot County Free School, established, as before stated, under the law of 1723. Like schools were founded in many of the other counties, and they really were the precursors of the excellent county academies set up after the revolution. This school had legislative aid and recogni- tion. But nothing more need be said of it than has been said in the Easton Star of April and May of the present year, where a full account of it has been given.
In the rude and primitive condition of society which existed in this county, as in the province generally, for many years after its settlement, there was no demand for higher culture, and if there had been there were really no teachers to impart it. In a new country not the intellec- tual graces, but the physical forces are in requisition. The former are unwilling to be transported from an old community to a new, and they are difficult of transportation, and yet more difficult of perpetuation. Men, learned and accomplished, find a new soil inhospitable, so they are loath to leave their old homes, where they have appreciation. From the very beginning great difficulty was experienced by the planters of Maryland and other colonies whose conditions of settlement were similar, in obtaining competent teachers. Their ability to pay learned men or those skilled in the art of instruction, was small. And besides, the compensation that was paid for mere physical labor drew off into mechanical callings all but those who were incapacitated by bodily weakness or indolence. The consequence was that the profession of teaching, if it might then be so called, was filled by those who were thought to be fit for nothing else. As a consequence, they were held in low repute. Their social position was beneath that of those pursu- ing the handicrafts. The public estimate of them was measured by the insignificant compensation that was extended to them for their services. The early teachers were obtained from that needy class of emigrants who secured their passage to this colony by obligating them- selves to serve a certain number of years in consideration of their trans-
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portation; or from that other and hardly less necessitous class who, though they might have been able to pay the ship master the moderate sum charged for bringing them over, after their arrival, found them- selves unfitted for the hard labor that was exacted of them in this new country. Or again from another and a smaller class, made up of va- grants and petty criminals, or banished rebels, who were compelled to leave their old homes for an enforced residence in Maryland or Virginia. Many of the early settlers were, therefore, actually indentured servants, or were bought by the planters from the captains or supercargoes, as they stood upon the deck of the ship. From the records of the county, from the oldest newspaper printed at Annapolis, and from other authentic sources, it is certainly known that the custom of purchasing teachers was common, and that not a few of these were really con- victs. It is probable that from each of the classes which furnished the early teachers-the poor freemen, the indentured servants, or the transported criminals-the most vigorous in body, or even the most sprightly in mind, were not selected as tutors for the children. In new countries physical strength is too important an element in the struggle for life, or in the pursuit of wealth to be wasted in disciplining urchins; and intelligence can win too many and rich rewards to be used upon the work of the abecedarian. The school teacher, therefore, was too generally the man of inferior physical stamina or of the less active men- tal qualities. Indeed, down to a very recent date, if, indeed, the same condition does not still exist, the calling of the elementary teacher was adopted, by the simply indolent, or by those who felt their physi- cal or mental incapacity for the great competitive struggle for the honors and rewards of life. To be sure, strong men have and do become teach- ers for a time, that they might and may prepare themselves for, or await more remunerative and more highly esteemed positions. It may be readily inferred, from what has been said of the character of the classes from which the early teachers were taken, that they held a very hum- ble social position, and that their very limited scholarship, if their imperfect acquaintance with even the rudiments of learning deserves to be designated by such a name, did little to raise them in general esteem; and that the low moral character of many of them was such as to hardly merit more consideration than they received from people whose standard of rectitude and purity of conduct were no higher than their standards of scholarship and literary culture.
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