USA > New Jersey > Middlesex County > Woodbridge > An Educational History Of The School District of Woodbridge Township, Middlesex County, New Jersey 1666 - 1933 > Part 8
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The State Superintendent's report of 1863 enlightens the legislature regarding these officers:
"The Town Superintendent is the offloor whom the law holds responsible for the proper management of the educational affaire of the township. He is the custodian of the money appropriated to school purposes, and he gives bonds to the inhabitants of his township for the safe keeping and lawful disbursement of the seme. To him is assigned the duty of forming end altering school districts. Ho gives notice of the time and place of all an- nual and special meetings. He must visit the schools, make himself acquainted with their condition, report the same annually to the in- habitants of the township and to the State Sup- erintendent, he must examine teachers then the Chosen Freeholders see fit to add this to his other duties."
These officers were elected yearly and received one dol- lar for every day they were employed in the business of their office.
153
Many of these town superintendents were incapable of making an intelligent report even when blanks were pro- vided for their use. The office was a political one en- tirely, no special educational qualification being required.
State Superintendent Ricord mentions that the reports of the town superintendents were often "so ambiguous that the data is useless. " Such a simple question as, "What is the number of districts in the Township?" was often answered in such a vague and unsatisfactory way that, speaking of this item, the superintendent refers to it as, "an item which has never yet been made known. "
The "Little Red School House" surely did exist and pro- bably met the requirements of the day in many cases, but in his report to the Legislature under date of January 15, 1862, Superintendent F. W. Ricord, speaking of the district schools, among which must have been "The Little Red School House, " says "many of them are miserable shanties. " Also,
"A schoolhouse situated upon the public high- way with not a foot of playground and not a solitary out-shed is not the place wherein to teach morality, to preserve instinctive delicacy, and yet there are hundreds of such schoolhouses throughout the State. "
In his Annual Report for the School Year ending August 31, 1869, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, E. A. Apgar, referring to the sanitary accommodations in connection with the district schools says:
134
"Outhouses, 335 indifferent ones, most of which have one apartment for both sexes, and 182 have none at all. Middlesex is free from this shane. "
Previous to 1856, the district schools were not re- quired to keep a school register and for a long time, even where they were used, in many cases they were inadequately kept and the law was often absolutely ignored. This may have been because the law made no provision for the regis- ters to be supplied to the districts.
The State Superintendent of Public Instruction, in his report for 1864, presented to the Legislature in 1865, says: "In many instances, where the teachers en- deavor to conform with the requirements of the law, they are compelled to furnish books for the purpose themselves; and every time they accept new positions, they carry these books with them and the schools from which they remove are thus left without re- cords. "
One of the greatest sources of trouble in the early school districts, according to these reports seems to have been in the selection of teachers:
"The selection of teachers is a very fruitful source of trouble. In some districts it is made by calling a meeting of the inhabitants and taking a vote. It is not uncommon for the Trustees of a district to select one tea- cher and the dissatisfied portion of the in- habitants to select another. " -- 1
The term "Free Schools" appears in early records quite often and may be misleading to many not conversant with its
1 Report of State Super. of Public Instruction 1864.
135
application. In his report of 1868, relative to free schools, State Superintendent Apgar, speaking of public schools as distinct from private schools, says:
"This does not necessarily mean "free schools," or schools open to the public where all children of the legal age may attend and receive an education free of cost. This, I regret to say, is not the case. About one-half of the schools of the state are free, but the remaining half are partially supported by what are termed 'rate bills' or 'tuition bills. '"
Sometimes it was the duty of the Trustees to collect the rate bills, and because of this, some citizens would not serve on the Boards. Others wouldn't collect them without a commission. Sometimes the teacher had to collect then, often becoming involved in quarrels with the school patrons regarding the amount of the charge which was based upon the attendance of the child, the quality of instruction and even school discipline.
The amount of money received from these bills enabled the school year to be extended. Some districts actually closed their schools when the State appropriation was ex- hausted and did not resort to rate bills.
The State Superintendent in his annual report says:
"The greatest objection to the rate- bill system is that it requires the poor man to pay for the education of his child- ren. This is contrary to the principle we found our Public school system on, which is that every child has a right to
MF
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Old Lafayette Sch.
135A
Old Lafayette Sch Left in Raritan Tup when iwp. Schlines were drawn
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137
Raritan. The Act of 1895 modified the Act of 1894, one of the amendments giving the Boards of Education of the adja- cent townships power to change district boundaries where township lines cut in two old districts so as to make it inconvenient or impractical for a considerable number of children to attend school in their own township. Changes were to stand for three years only, giving opportunity for frequent adjustments. The action of the Woodbridge Board of Education in the matter of such adjustments will be re- ferred to in another chapter.
Bonhamtown School, Franklin School (Metuchen), New Dover School, Mt. Pleasant School, and Oak Tree School (old No. 6 Raritan) now a private residence, were also embraced within the recently organized Raritan Township.
The Bridgetown district school and the South Branch School (probably) were taken over by Rahway when it extend- ed its boundaries in 1858.
The report of the State Superintendent of Public Schools for the year 1850, appearing in the Senate Journal of New Jersey 1851, gives the whole number of Woodbridge Township School Districts as seventeen and the amount expended on them as $777.50 (includes Woodbridge Village. )
Ellis B. Freeman, Town Superintendent of Woodbridge, whose report to the State Superintendent of Schools for
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138
the year 1851 appears in the Senate Journal, says:
"There were originally eighteen districts in this township, #5 and #6 have been united, also #11 and #12, and a school for colored children formed in Rahway. . There are three private schools in the township which take a number not less than 75 children, residents of the township. ..... Eight of the teachers through the summer were females of ages 18 to 25.
"There will be but one school under the di- rection of a female during the winter, al- though two of the schools, viz: Rahway and Woodbridge, have female assistants. Sev- eral of the male teachers are experienced, as such, having made teaching a profession from choice, one of them having taught the same school more than 30 years.
" .... Course and Extent of Study .... under this head is included all the studies us- ually taught in schools, from the alphabet to English grammar, geography, history, sur- veying, bookkeeping, and in one school a class of Latin scholars. " -- 1
Town Superintendent of Woodbridge, Sidney Averill, in his report to State Superintendent John H. Philipps, prin- ted in the Senate Journal for 1853, says:
"There are nominally 18 districts in this township though really only 16, as two have been heretofore absorbed in others. (Strawberry Hill and Jefferson to form #24, and #5 and #6 to form the Academy District. ) There is a school also for colored children.
"The teachers are frequently retained a num- ber of years in the same school. One aged gentleman, a worthy example of this class
1 Senate Journal for 1852.
1
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of persons has been 33 years in the same school. He merite a pension, though in his case, one night infer from the attach- ment of his patrons, that he will never need it. "
Probably this old gentleman was "Bethune Duncan, the brother of Chief Justice Duncan of South Carolina, who commenced teaching school at Oak Tree, October 1819, and Continued his service there for 45 years. " -- 1
Superintendent Averill was very outspoken in his crit- 101sm of his schoolhouses in the same report:
"It is known from actual observation that there are barns built for horses in this town which exceed in cost and convenience, fourteen out of its seventeen schoolhouses. We have only three well-furnished publio school rooms in the township; but another is building at a cost of over $3,000, which, it is hoped, may throw over our old and weather-beaten rooms ..... a dark and disre- putable shade, with all their mutilated desks set against the walls, that with their long, plank seats, may remind us of those early times when as yet the cushioned seat was not. "
2
Mr. Averill was not reappointed to his office the next year, no doubt his reward for the expression of an honest criticism.
Luther J. Tappen, Town Superintendent of Woodbridge in 1863, in his report to the State Superintendent of Public Instruction says:
"Registers are kept in all schools. Amount of money raised by the township $2.00 per
1 Ezra Hunt M. D. Metuchen and Her History 1870.
2. Senate Journal for 1852
140
scholar. Amount from state $447.86."
State Superintendent E. A. Apgar's Annual report for 1867 gives the enrollments of Woodbridge Township schools as follows:
District 1.
44
2
2-
66
3
I -206 I
4 .. 1
-231
5
1 1
107
#
6-
53
7-
177
8-
67
9-
40
=
10
37
11
80
12
55
13
44
14
24
These numbers of districts are only sequential numbers and are not to be confused with present-day numbers. Nos. 3 and 4 were in Woodbridge proper. No. 5, no doubt, was Fair- field Union, and No. 7, Franklin in Metuchen.
Incorporated School Districts were later given names, and thus we find in Superintendent Apgar's report for 1869, as it appears in "Legal Documents, State of New Jersey, 1870," the following list of District schools with some statistics:
Woodbridge Township Schools 1869
Place
Enroll't
Condition
Average Salary
Rahway Neck
32
fair
$25.00
Blazing Star
47
poor
41.66 -**
33.33-F*
M means Male -- F means Female
140A
Rahway Neck. Sch. ( Now a private residence, 1933
Old Six-Roads Washington)
141
Place
Enroll't
Condition
Average Salary
Academy
121
fair
$32.50
Jefferson
215
good
70.00-M
55.00-F
Fairfield Union
69
good
23.00
Bonhamtown No report
fair
Franklin( Metuchen) 144
poor
76.00-M
38.00-F
Uniontown
40
fair
25.00
New Dover
21
poor
20.00
Mt. Pleasant
19
fair
20.00
Oak Tree
48
good
26.67
Lafayette Union
37
good
30.00
Washington
39
good
33.00
Locust Grove
28
good
25.00
It appears that Jefferson (up-town school, Woodbridge, ) Blazing Star (Carteret -- Old No. 2) and Franklin (Metuchen), had each two teachers, one of each sex; Lafayette Union, one teacher, male.
It will be noted, as other lists of school districts are given, that some of them disappear from Woodbridge. These &- pear afterwards in the reports from other townships.
"Rahway Neck" school is now occupied as a private resi- dence and is located on the road between Carteret and Rahway, looking very much the same as when it resounded to the monoto- ous chant of the multiplication tables, with the exception that now a fine privet hedge surrounds it.
"Blazing Star" (#2) has disappeared, but its ghost rubs elbows with the fine building erected adjacent to it in the Chrome section of Carteret.
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142
"Academy School, " the old "downtown" Woodbridge School became a wanderer, finally laying its tired old frame to rest on the banks of the Woodbridge Creek, near the bridge opposite the property of the Woodbridge Lumber Company on Rahway Avenue, a solemn lesson to all those schools contem- plating such a change in their life work -- converted to re- ligion, then backsliding to a plumber's junk shop.
"Jefferson School" is now a dignified place of busi- ness opposite the Municipal Building on Main Street. In its varied career since leaving the field of education, it has performed its duty as a feed store, a Chinese Laundry, and is now eking out an existence as an Auto Accessory Shop and Gas Station on one side, a luncheonette on the other, and a private residence on the second story. Disguised with its coat of stucco, it puts up a bold front, there being little about it now to recall to mind those early days when the playful school boys placed a board on the top of the chim- ney to smoke out the school for a holiday.
"Fairfield Union" school was a one-story, two-room building about 31 feet by 57 feet, erected on a lot purchased from Daniel Voorhees August 10, 1858, on the south side of King George's Post Road. It was later moved across the high- way to make room for the present new brick edifice now occupy- ing the old site. It had the distinction of being crowned
142 A
FORDS School - Zroumsin?
Destroyed by fire.
Had been moved to this lat ane
the property opposite the
site of the present new one"
New Sch. No 2. erected by Wye Bd. shown on left.
Old School Blazing Star moved offiis foundations
New School ME 2
Blazing Stc
School
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1
143
with a belfry enclosing a bell, but school, belfry, and bell finally fell victims to the fire demon and now scarce one remains who knows the spot whereon it stood.
There had been an old school previous to this situated on the Crow Mills Road which was later moved to the spot now occupied by the Fords National Bank and which was used as a grocery store and post office by Mr. Melvin Clum, President of the Township Board of Education. It was again moved to make way for the new bank and is now the residence of Mr. Clum on Fourth Street.
"Uniontown School, " a one-room building, went up in fire and smoke one afternoon whilst the children were at play. After the fire, the children were housed for some time in a little church on the adjacent lot, but fate decreed that it, too, should be translated in fire and smoke. At first it stood on the north side of Galbraith's Hotel on the old highway, but railroad changes led to its removal from that site to the one on the Woodbridge Road.
Clayton in his "Compilation" of 1882, says:
"Among the early teachers was Master William Creamer who taught a school at Uniontown in 1817-1819. He is well remembered by the old- er inhabitants as a "learned man and well fitted for teaching.
The Woodbridge newspaper, the Independent Hour, pub- lished the following item from a special contributor under
144
date of June 14, 1877:
"It was our happy lot to be present at the Public School entertainment at this place on last Friday evening, where we were most agreeably surprised to meet friends from Rahway, Woodbridge and Menlo Park. of course, the house was filled. It was a sol- id comfort to attend a school examination as well as an exhibition of the 'stage paces' of the scholars. The exercises consisted of a most rigid and searching test of their var- lous capabilities in geography, mental arith- metic, a cross-examination in all kinds of tables of weights and measures and a grand tournament in spelling, a promiscuous list of about 200 of the longest, toughest, and unseemly words endured in the English langu- age, and although many of them might compete with the Turko-Russian list of war news, yet only two were missed in the whole list and many of the scholars in the competition seemed not over ten years of age.
"The Scholars as a group are good singers.
"The lady principal is deserving of the great- est consideration from all that are inter ested for the thorough and prompt manner in which she teaches them all to answer, drones and laggards not being tolerated. The manage- ment certainly has cause for self-congratula- tions in so fortunate a selection. Being a total stranger to her, we have no reason to be biased.
"Many who attended the exhibition were agreeably surprised to find that Mr. Edison of Menlo Park had placed his telephone in the house for the entertainment of the visitors. The felicity of hearing as well as seeing so recent and wonder- ful an invention could not fail to make it un- usually impressive, especially to all interested in progress and enlightment and although all the Instruments and connections were only temporar- ily arranged and the operators not all practiced yet the result was most gratifying. Only the least amount of testing and we had selections
144 h
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2.
Iselin Sch. (Uniontown)
two - rooms
Uniontown School one - room (Istlin)
Antontown Sch. (Zselin ) Sch
1.
145
from Mr. Sankey's hymns as well as Nation- al Airs -- My Country 'Tis of Thee -- being transmitted with wonderful clearness. It was shown also that the cries of birds and animals upon an imitation of them, could be transmitted with great clearness. We should not be at all surprised if Edison taught this child of his inventive fancy to talk. "
( Signed) -- Progress
Probably this little school had the honor of being the first school building in the country in which to have the telephone demonstrated.
Bell had filed his application in Washington D. C. for a patent on his telephone apparatus, February 14, 1876. Edison, in his shops at Menlo Park, New Jersey, near the Iselin School (Uniontown), had invented the carbon button, a part of the vibrating mechanism within the transmitter and the receiver. This is a little brass box containing particles of carbon composed of especially selected and treated coal, and no doubt the audience at the Iselin exercises was listen- ing to a very early, if not the first, public demonstration of its application to Bell's telephone.
"Washington School, " also known as Six Roads No. 4, escaped the fate of its relatives at Uniontown and Fairfield but was abandoned and sold for $75 when the new Avenel School No. 4 was opened. The buyer then resold it and it was torn down. In all probability the lumber from it was
146
used in the construction of one of the small houses in the neighborhood. Being located on King George's Road, the main highway between Woodbridge and Rahway, on the east side about half way between Avenel Road and the Pennsylvania R. R. bridge, it became a favorite resting place for "Knights of the Road" especially over weekends, scarcely be- ing fit for occupancy many a Monday morning. With its old pot-stove, "carved" furniture, cracked, plastered walls, barn-like floor, tumble-down foundations, splintered door and rotting wooden steps, it could not keep pace with modern educational progress and now the place whereon it stood shall know it no more.
"Locust Grove" school is located on the far edge of the township beyond Colonia on the old road leading from Rah- way to Plainfield and was abandoned when the new building was erected at Colonia near the Pennsylvania R. R. station. The Clark Township children attended there for many years although that township was in Union County. It continued to be used as a Sunday school for many years afterwards and the building is still in good condition.
A news item appearing in the Independent Hour, June 15, 1876, says:
"The schoolhouse in Locust Grove District No. 19, in the upper part of this town- ship near the residence of Colonel G. W. Thorne, is being enlarged and thoroughly
1464
5
New Dover School
Locust Grove. School
1
147
repaired, replastered, painted and furnished with new furniture of the most approved style and a parlor organ, with clothes room, lib- rary room, hall and coal room, new outbuild- ings and front fence. This is an improve- ment which the good people in that vicinity will appreciate and we congratulate Colonel Thorne and the other Trustees and friends of education and comfort for children while in school, on their efforts to have one of the neatest and most complete little school build- ings in the Township and perhaps in the coun- try. "
This school was a one-room building and how it held all these "improvements" is a mystery. The illustrations of these district schools were made from photographs taken in the early years of the administration of the pre- sent supervising principal of schools before the wave of public school transportation and consolidation had reached this township.
November 20, 1871, County Superintendent Ralph Wil- lis wrote to the various District Clerks in Middlesex as follows:
"Gentlemen: Serious evils have arisen from the unsettled state of the boundaries of school districts and the want of some per- manent form in which they may be preserved for reference. The Trustees of each school district of Middlesex County are, therefore, earnestly requested to send to the County Superintendent, a careful description of their boundaries in their district. Special care will be needed that such description does not conflict with the claims of any neighboring district or districts.
:
FIRE HUNG" 50 .. v.L
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Arial
2. Old New Dover" Sch now privato y sidene 1933
148
. These descriptions of boundaries, when cent in and approved, will be record- od in a book provided for the purpose, and when the collection is completed, a copy of it will be placed in the office of the State Superintendent at Trenton, having le- gal authority and force."
(signed) -- R. Willis, County Superintendent
March 5, 1872, Mr. Willis called a meeting of the Trustees of the Township Districts for Thursday March 14, at the Academy Schoolhouse, Woodbridge, at 2 p. m. for the purpose of examining and correcting the boundary des- criptions preparatory to their publication in a permanent form.
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1.49
Chapter IX Summary OTHER TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS
The State Superintendent's report of 1863 en- lightens the legislature.
The State Superintendent Ricord calls the Town Superintendent's reports "ambiguous" and data useless.
District schools, "miserable shanties", says Ricord. Registers not kept previous to 1856.
The selection of teachers is the greatest source of trouble reported by State Superintendent in 1884. Explanation of term "Free Schools" given.
Many evils are corrected by the introduction of the township systen by an Act of 1894.
Raritan Township organized out of Woodbridge and Piscataway Townships in 1870.
The Act of 1895 modifies the Act of 1894.
The whole number of school districts in Woodbridge Township given in the State Superintendent's report of 1850 is stated as seventeen.
The report of Superintendent Ellis B. Freeman of Woodbridge appears in the Senate Journal of 1851.
Town superintendent Sidney Averill reports in the Senate Journal 1855 and criticizes the district schools.
150
Town Superintendent Luther J. Tappen says "Registers are kept in all schools (Woodbridge) ".
Enrollments in District Schools of Woodbridge for 1867 are given by State Superintendent Apgar in 1867.
The list of district schools with some statistics for Woodbridge Township is given.
quotation from Clayton's "Compilation" of 1882 mentions Master William Creamer.
The "Independent Hour" publishes the story of a school entertainment at Iselin.
Mr. Edison loans his telephone to Iselin school for demonstration purposes.
A news item in the "Independent Hour", June 15, 1876, tells about Locust Grove School.
In 1871, County Superintendent Ralph Willis calls for descriptions of school district boundaries.
In 1872, County Superintendent Willis meets with the Trustees of the Township Districts at the Academy School, Woodbridge.
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1.51
CHAPTER X PRIVATE SCHOOLS
During the eighteenth century and about three-quart- ers of the nineteenth, the period of the development of the "Free Schools," or public schools, as distinct from private institutions, xxx the raising of money for the ed- ucation of poor children was a regular and increasing item in the township budgets according to the old town records. In fact, it almost seemed that there were no other children than poor children attending school. Many parents who could afford to do so sent their children to private schools of which there was a considerable number in Woodbridge Township, two having been previously mentioned, viz: the old Academy and the Elm Tree Institute.
A few others will be mentioned as worthy of notice in connection with this history. "Mrs. Ricord's Boarding School for Young Ladies at Woodbridge, New Jersey," is the heading of an advertisement appearing in the "New Jersey Advocate and Middlesex and Essex Advertiser," Volume IV, No. 4, published in Rahway, Tuesday, March 28, 1826.
"The winter session of this school will close on Saturday, the first of April, and the summer session commences on Wednesday, the 19th day of April. Mrs. Ricord cannot, on this occasion, refrain from expressing her obligations to her patrons. She hopes to merit their con-
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