The history of Camden county, New Jersey, Part 48

Author: Prowell, George Reeser, 1849-1928
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : Richards
Number of Pages: 1220

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We cannot but admire the spirit of these early settlers, who, in the very beginning of their settlement, while they were engaged in the hard work of subduing the forest and breaking up the virgin soil, gave earnest atten- tion to necessary provision both for religion and education.

In 1715 the second school was commenced near Haddonfield, in the home of Jonathan Bolton and Hannah, his wife. In this year Robert Montgomery and Sarah, his wife, a daughter of Henry Stacy, removed from Monmouth County to a tract of land about one mile west of Haddonfield, owned by Sarah's father, and settled thereon.

In the same year they conveyed to Jona- than Bolton and Hannah, his wife, forty acres of land during their lives and the life of the survivor, in consideration of their pay- ing one ear of Indian corn annually, and that the said Hannah would teach, or cause to be taught, the children of the said Robert

and Sarah, or any other child that may hap- pen in their family, to read English and do seamstry work. These forty acres were on or near the farm now owned by William H. Nicholson, and here was the second institu- tion of learning in Camden County.

About 1720 the Friends built a meeting- honse at Haddonfield, and established a school there which has been maintained with varied success ever since. In 1750 a school- house, sixteen feet square, was built of cedar logs at Ellisburg. The building, slightly altered, is still standing. In 1776 it was weather-boarded up and down and plastered inside. Nothing is known of the first teach- ers of this place.

About 1750, or earlier, a school was es- tablished in Blackwood. A large settlement of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians had been made in the vicinity, and a fulling-mill erected about 1720. A tombstone in the old grave- yard near the town has a record of the death of David Wainwright, February 11, 1720. The first school-house was standing in 1800, near the Presbyterian Church, which was built in 1751. The custom of Presbyterians, as well as Friends, was to put up houses of worship and school-houses as soon as they settled in any locality, and this accounts for the prosperity and permanency of the settle- ments founded by them.

The early teachers of whom informa- tion can be obtained were Joseph Thack- ara, John C. Thackara, Thomas Thackara and Isaac Hinchman. The Thackaras were the descendants of that Thomas Thackara who belonged to the original company that settled on the banks of Newton Creek. Thus the Presbyterians seemed to have gone to the Friends for instructors. John Dunlevy taught here in the beginning of this century. He was the first teacher in several other dis- tricts, and was said to have been a man of good education. The school in winter-time was only for large scholars, and in summer- time for small ones.

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HISTORY OF CAMDEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

In 1762 (April 15th) Rev. John Brainerd, of missionary fame, one of the trustees of Princeton College, who lived at Brotherton, an Indian village in Burlington County, rode seventeen miles from his home to a small village, then called Long-a-Coming, now Berlin, and took up a subscription to build a meeting-house for the Presbyterian congre- gation, which was erected in the fall of the year. This was near the head of the Great Egg Harbor River, on the ground where what was called the Thorn School-house (now. a chapel for the Berlin Cemetery) stood.' Near this meeting-house a school-house was built, but it was removed about 1800, as up to 1833 the old church building was used for church and school. The deed of the lot, containing four acres, on which the church had already been built, was given by Samuel Scull and Ruth, his wife, September 18, 1766, to Michael Fisher, David Roe, Peter Chees- man, Northrop Marple and Henry Thorn.

In 1771 the people near New Freedom established a school in a log building twenty by sixteen feet, and Thomas Shinn was the first teacher.

Gloucester City must have had a school- house before the year 1700, inasmuch as it was the county-seat of Gloucester County from 1689 to 1787, but we have no account of it, unless an old school-house of cedar logs, sixteen feet square, located below Mar- ket Street, near the present line of the West Jersey Railroad, was the first one. The first teacher known was a man called Master Johnson, a graduate of one of the English universities. So well were the people pleased with him that they gave him a year's board gratis to induce him to remain. Another of the early teachers in Gloucester was Richard Snowdon, an Englishman, born at Poule- fract, Yorkshire, April 15, 1753, who came to America with his parents and settled in Burlington, in this State. He was first a tutor in the family of John Hoskins, at Bur -. lington, and then a tutor in the family of

Joseph Roberts, near Haddonfield. About 1780 he took charge of the Friends' school at Haddonfield, and taught there until about 1792, when he established a school at Gloucester. How long he remained at Gloucester is not known. While there he wrote a " History of the American Revolu- tion " in the style of the holy Scriptures. Iu 1795 he published "The Columbiad," a poem, upon the same subject. In 1805 he wrote a " History of America," from its dis- covery to the death of General Washington. He died in Philadelphia March 31, 1825.

In 1782 an acre of land, as a site for a school-house, was sold by John Estaugh Hopkins, of Haddonfield, to John Gill, Jacob Clement, Edward Gibbs, Joseph Lip- pincott, John Clement and Thomas Redman, of the Society of Friends.

At a session of a meeting of Friends, held - at Salem, with which Haddonfield Meet- ing was connected, in the year 1790, the 17th day of the Fifth Month, a committee, appointed at a previous meeting, reported that it would be well to raise funds in the respective Monthly Meetings, to be put out at interest, and the interest to be applied, under the care of judicious trustees, for the school- ing of poor children of white and of colored parents.

Quite a large amount was given by the liberal Friends of Haddonfield and vicinity for this object,-six hundred and thirty-five pounds, six shillings, equal to two thousand five hundred and forty-one dollars. Among the donors are the names of men whose de- scendants occupy prominent and honorable positions in Camden County to-day-Gill, Burrough, Glover, Stokes, Hopkins, Clem- ent, Tomlinson, Thorn, Githens, Lippincott, Albertson, Hillman, Nicholson, Jennings, Redman, Mickle, Kaighn and Thompson. The school thus sustained, to whose begin- ning reference has been already made, has continued to be an active force in educa- tional work in Haddonfield.

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EDUCATION.

The people of Union District, No. 3, be- gan their educational work in 1795. A lot was sold by Thomas Burrough to Thomas Burrough, Isaac Fish and Isaac Morgan, in trust for school purposes, on which a stone school-house, twenty-eight feet long by twen- ty-four feet wide, was built. It was one story high and was used as a school-house until replaced by a new one, in 1871. The money to build the house was raised by sub scription and amounted to £238 88. 4}d. One of the items of expense was one and one-half gallons of rum. On account of the depreci- ation of the colonial notes, the shilling was worth thirteen and one-third cents in New Jersey, and the pound two and two-thirds dollars. The first teacher in this school was John Dunlevy, a native of Ireland and a man of culture, who continued in the profes- sion until about 1830. His successor was John Ward, an American, also a ripe scholar. He published "The Farmers' Almanac," which was much sought after. The floor of the old school-house was terraced, there be- ing three terraces, the first, about twelve feet from the door, being raised nine inches, and each succeeding one raised about the same height. At the back of the room, where the larger scholars stood, their heads were very close to the ceiling. This description will also serve for the old Greenville school-house, on the Marlton turnpike, about two and a half miles from Camden.

Prior to 1800 a school was kept at Chews Landing, in a log dwelling-house in a field opposite the tavern, where John Connor taught for many years. He was well edu- cated, a first-class teacher and was considered one of the best penmen in his day. He was also a surveyor, but he indulged in strong drink and finally became worthless. He was the first teacher in a frame school-house built by Friends, in Chews Landing, near 'what is called " the Floodgates," on the 'north branch of Timber Creek, in 1804. The size of the house was thirty-six by twenty-

four feet. It was destroyed by fire in 1818. About 1800 the Friends put np a frame building near a settlement called New Hope- well, on the old Egg Harbor road, about two miles south of New Freedom, accommo- dating the children in the districts now called Tansboro' and Pump Branch. Its size was thirty-six by eighteen feet. The first teacher was John Shinn, a preacher in the Society of Friends.

The history of education down to the present century has thus far been traced. The work done by the first settlers is worthy of the highest praise. While they were clearing off the land and getting it ready for cultivation, even before it was in a condition to support them, they built houses of worship and school-houses, knowing that it was only by the maintenance of religion and education that true prosperity and real permanence could be given to the community. The best educated men were selected to teach, and the land on which the school-houses were built was given for a nominal consideration. Early settlers per- ceived that their property would be greatly increased in value on account of the prox- imity of a school.

The credit of commencing and continuing the schools is due mainly to the Friends. What education is able to accomplish may be learned from them. It has made them a class of influential and worthy citizens. No class of people has been or is better educated than the Friends, and no class is more earnest and industrious, hard-working citi- zens. It can be said that they have no poor, at least no paupers. The same can be said of every well educated community in this country and in Europe.

Wherever members of the Presbyterian Church settled, there also the church and the school-house were erected, and very gener- ally the minister acted as school-teacher, be- sides attending to his ministerial duties.

The schools mentioned, except that of the Friends at Haddonfield, were pay schools.

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HISTORY OF CAMDEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

The population of the territory now em- braced in Camden County in 1800 was about four thousand, and the proportion of schools to the population was one to every four hundred inhabitants. If the number of children was one-fourth the population, then there was a school for every one hundred children of school age, about the same pro- portion as at the present time.

In 1803, in Greenville District, No. 6, Joseph Morgan, for five shillings, sold one- half acre to Joseph Champion, Esq., Isaac Thorn, Elizabeth Kay, Benjamin Morgan, Joseph Burrough, Jr., Marmaduke Shivers, Nathaniel Barton, John Rudderow, Thomas Curtis, Jacob Evaul, Frederic Plum and Benjamin Archer. On this land a school- house was built, twenty-seven feet by twenty feet, with the ceiling twelve feet high. It was used seventy-two years. In 1810 a school-house was built in Horner District, No. 9, near the road leading from Haddon- field to Glendale, on land owned by Jacob Horner. The frame was oak and weather- boards cedar. It was twenty-two by eighteen feet, with a ceiling eight feet high, and the sides were lined with bricks. It had six windows, each containing twelve panes of glass, eight by ten inches. The first teacher was John C. Thackara; the next, John Dun- levy ; John Stafford, a native of England, also taught here. He was one of Washing- ton's body-guard during the Revolution, and at the battle of Germantown was thrown from his horse and seriously injured. He recovered from his injury and lived to be a very old man. In 1872 the house was re- built on a lot purchased of Montgomery Stafford.

In 1809 the first public school-house was built in Haddonfield. William Estaugh Hopkins gave twenty-seven hundredths of an acre to John Clement, Bowman Hendry, John Roberts, Turner Risdon, Joseph C. Elfreth and John Thompson, trustees of Haddonfield Grove School for the purpose

of building a school-house, which was also used as a place of religious worship. In this building the Baptist, the Methodist Episco- pal, the Protestant Episcopal and the Pres- byterian churches of the town originated. It has been in constant use since it was built. Since the erection of the beautiful and com- modious school-house, situated on Chestnut Street, the old house has been used by the school for colored children.

Prior to 1811 a frame school-house was built in Clementon District, of which no records could be found. It stood on what is called the Stafford road, and was torn down in 1811. Another one was built on the road leading from White Horse (now Kirkwood) to Clementon the same year. Its size was thirty feet long and twenty-two wide, the ceiling thirteen feet high. It still does ser- vice in the cause of education. The ground on which it stands, consisting of one acre and one rod, was given by Thomas Bran- son to William Rudderow, Joseph Crawford, Samuel Chambers, Ephraim Hillman, Joseph Dill, Benjamin Tomlinson, John Thoru and William Branson as trustees for the nominal sum of one dollar. The first teachers in this school-house were John Stafford and William Thorn. The inhabitants in the vicinity of Rosendale, living along the Burlington turnpike, two miles from Camden, about 1816, built a log house twenty-four by twenty-two feet, with the ceiling seven feet high. It stood in the grove opposite the present school-house and was called the Bald- win School. The teachers were a woman and her daughter from Philadelphia, who made the school-house their home. In this house Abel Curtis and Edward Ewbanks taught. In 1827 the building fell down and there was no school in the district until 1838 ; the children in the mean time went to Greenville School. In 1820 a little square school-house was built in Pump Branch District, No. 37, near Blue Anchor, which was used until 1874, when another and a very superior house was

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built about three-quarters of a mile from the old site. In 1825 the first school-house was built at Mount Ephraim. It was a frame building about twenty feet square. Mickle Clement was the first teacher. School was held in it until 1859, when the present building was put up. The people of Rowandtown bought half an acre for one dollar from Jacob Cle- ment, in 1828, on the Haddonfield and Cam- den road, about two miles from Haddonfield. It was a frame building, the sides lined with brick and plastered, and ceiled above. It was twenty-four by twenty feet, the ceiling eight and a half feet high. It was used forty- four years, although the number of children in the district had increased during that time to one hundred and forty. For many years it was the custom to have a male teacher in the winter and a female in the summer. This had become a very general practice about that time, and was continued until about 1870 in many of the districts, to the very great injury of the schools. Dayton Du- vall was the first male teacher and Ann Bassett the first female teacher. A brick school-house, octagonal in shape, was built in Westville District, No. 14, since set over to Gloucester County and another house built. School had been held in a log tenant-house before this, about three months each winter. The octagonal building stood until 1873, when it was demolished, and a neat two-story frame building erected on its site.

The first school in Winslow District was commenced in 1831 in a log house. The next year a frame house was built for the joint use of the Methodist Church and the school. The same building, enlarged, is still used as a school-house. Deborah Hunt was the first teacher. In 1806, a school-house was built at Ellisburg, by subscription, and in 1831 Joseph Ellis gave half an acre "to the inhabitants of the town of Waterford for the establishment of a good school for the edu- cation of the children of the inhabitants of

Ellisburg and vicinity with competent teach- ers." The school was to be "for the im- provement of the moral and literary character of the youth and the more general diffusion of science." On this lot a brick house was built and used both as a school-house and hall for elections and town-meetings. An- other story has been added to it. Near Ellis- burg, there stood in former years a house known as Murrell's School-house, but the exact site is not known.

The inhabitants of Jackson District built their first school-house in 1833, on the road leading from Jackson to Hay's mill, but in 1865 they moved it to the village of Jackson and rebuilt it. In 1838 two school-houses were built, one in Gibbsboro' District and the other at Sicklerville. One acre at Gibbs- boro' was conveyed by William Wharton to Ahab Fowler, Joseph Graisbury and Wash- ington Schlosser for school purposes. It was made a present to the district by Mr. Whar- ton. Eliza Ann Dillon was the first teacher. The people of Sicklerville erected their school- house near where the Methodist Church now stands, but afterwards removed it to near the site of the present school-house, built in 1867. Paul H. Sickler was the first teacher.

In 1840 the inhabitants of Spring Mills, thinking that the Blackwoodtown school was too far from them, determined to have one for themselves. A frame house was built for that purpose by the liberality of the pro- prietors of Spring Mills Fork Works, and Amanda Stevens was employed as the first teacher. So good was the school that many of the children in Blackwoodtown walked to it, a distance of one and a half miles. In 1844 three school-houses were opened for their appropriate work,-one in Laurel Mill District, one in Mechanicsville, No. 20, and one in Glendale, No. 26. John P. Harker was the first teacher. When the house was built, doubtless by the liberality of Ephraim Tomlinson, it was sold to the district by Mr. Tomlinson in 1874, when it was repaired. A

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HISTORY OF CAMDEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

frame school-house was built in Mechanics- ville District, on the Blackwoodtown turn- pike, which was used until 1850, when another one, twenty-three feet long by seventeen feet wide, was erected on the road leading to Al- monessen. Rev. R. J. Burt, a graduate of Princeton College, was the first teacher. A small frame building was put up in Glendale District, near Ashland Station, and was used until 1855, when the Methodists built a church at Glendale village, and the inhabi- tants contributed towards its erection, with the understanding that the basement should be used for school purposes. It has so been used since it was built.

During the period from 1800 to 1846 there seems to have been a decline in the character of the schools. While some of the teachers employed were capable men and women, most of them were able to give in- struction only in the merest elements of the ordinary branches. As a general thing, the only branches taught were spelling, reading, writing and arithmetic. The text-books most in use were Comly's Spelling-Book, the Introduction to the English Reader, the Eng- lish Reader and Sequel, and Pike's or Rose's Arithmetic. Any one who went as far as the "rule of three" in arithmetic was con- sidered a well-educated man. This continued the standard in many of the districts until about 1870.

The pupils in the schools in those days were not classified except in reading and in spelling, and the classes in reading were so numerous that almost the whole forenoon was occupied in hearing them. The schools were kept open three months in some places and the whole year in others, the average time being about six months. All the schools were pay-schools, and this feature necessarily prevented poor people from sending their children. The cost was about three cents per day for each pupil. The mode of cor- rection was universally with the rod. "Reg- ular fights would sometimes take place when

the teacher would undertake to flog a boy as large as himself. In one instance, a young girl about seventeen years old was beaten so hard on the hand that she had to stay home for several weeks because she was so crippled that she could not use her hand." The school-houses and school furniture had re- mained unimproved for over one hundred years. The houses were all of the primitive type, small parallelograms, built about large enough to stow away forty or fifty children in, without much regard to health or comfort and none as to ventilation. The furniture consisted of desks ten or twelve feet long, and benches the same length, without any backs and so high that the feet of the little children could not reach the floor. There were no black- boards nor apparatus of any kind. While private dwellings were improving in size, shape and internal arrangements, better and more comfortably shaped furniture was placed within them; while everything per- taining to agriculture, manufactures, me- chanics, etc., was being improved, school- houses, school furniture and school apparatus were about the same as they were a century before.

NEW SCHOOL LAW .- An important epoch in the history of education in New Jersey began with the passage by the Legislature of the act " that authorized, empowered and re- quired the inhabitants of the several town- ships, at their annual town-meetings, to raise by tax or otherwise, in addition to the amount apportioned by the State to their use, such further sum or sums of money as they may deem proper for the support of public schools, at least equal to and not more than double the amount of such apportionment." This was brought about by a spirit of dissatisfaction with the then existing condition of education. In many parts of the State an agitation wa's going on for something better ; and in Glou- cester County, in 1842, which at that time included Camden County, a very import- ant meeting was held in accordance with the

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following notice to the school committee of Gloucester County, for a convention to be held at the court-house November 19, 1842, "to take into consideration the state of public education and suggest such alteration and amendments as may be deemed necessary in the State laws respecting public schools."

The following-named persons represented the districts indicated : Waterford township, Benjamin W. Cooper, Joseph Porter, Rich- ard Stafford ; Newton township, John M. Kaighn, Jacob L. Rowand, Thomas Redman, Jr .; the city of Camden, Richard Fetters, Thomas Chapman, Joseph W. Cooper.

A public school meeting of inhabitants of Gloucester County was held pursuant to the above notice, 19th November, 1842, at the court-house in Woodbury. Charles Reeves was chosen chairman and Thomas Redman secretary. Waterford, Newton, Deptford, Greenwich and Gloucester were represented. John B. Harrison, Thos. P. Carpenter and Charles Knight were appointed a committee to make a report at next meeting as to best means of improving schools. Adjourned to December 15, 1842, when another meeting was held and the report read. Dr. I. S. Mulford and John B. Harrison were chosen to embody the views into a memorial to pre- sent to the Legislature and to get signers.

This gave a great impetus to the cause of general education. In a short time all the townships began to raise the necessary sums of money and a system of partially free schools was inaugurated. An additional im- petus was given by the act of 1851, when the townships were permitted to raise three dollars per scholar.

In the Hillman District a school-house was built by the Friends in 1836, and one in Waterford in 1835.

Before 1846 twenty-seven schools had been established in the county outside of Cam- den City, with an equal number of depart- ments and teachers. Since then nineteen ad- ditional schools have been opened and the

number of departments and teachers has increased to sixty-six, the greatest increase having taken place in 1866.

In 1848 a new school-house of stone was built in Blackwoodtown, the old one which stood for about half a century having been burned. An academy was opened in that village, in which boys were prepared for business or for college. It was sustained until 1870, when a two-story public school- house was built. The school was put on such a basis that the children could receive as good an education as at the academy, ex- cept that Latin and Greek were not taught.

In 1853 a frame school-house was built at Irish Hill, in Centre township, and was occu- pied until 1881, when a very fine, commodious and well equipped house was built. In 1853 the people of Berlin built a school-house, which did good service until 1874, when the present beautiful and commodious structure was erected, one of the very best school-houses in Camden County. In 1855 a school-house at Greenland, No. 15, was built on a lot do- nated by Charles L. Willits and was used until 1882, when another of those neat structures that are now found in almost every school district was built. The people in Dis- trict No. 15 have done nobly in erecting for the colored people the finest school-house for colored children in any country district in South Jersey. It is a two-story frame build- ing, forty feet long and thirty-six feet wide.

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The history of Camden county, New Jersey, Part 48

Author: Prowell, George Reeser, 1849-1928 Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : Richards Number of Pages: 1220

Author: Prowell, George Reeser, 1849-1928
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : Richards
Number of Pages: 1220