USA > New York > Erie County > Buffalo > A history of Buffalo : delineating the evolution of the city > Part 12
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St. Joseph's College and Cathedral Parochial School (Catholic) was established under the direction of the clergy of the Bishop's residence in 1848, being opened in two brick houses on Niagara Street, near Main. Christian Brothers took charge of the college in 1861. From 1872 to 1892 it occupied a building erected for it on Delaware Avenue. For the next five years it was provided for tem- porarily at the corner of Prospect Avenue and Jersey Street, and took possession of its present fine building, on Main Street near Bryant, in 1897.
In 1851 a part of the former congregation of St. Louis Church, withdrawing from that body, met for a time in the basement of St. Peter's Church (French), at the corner of Washington and Clinton Streets, where services were con- ducted by Jesuit Fathers. Bishop Timon then conveyed to the Jesuits, for a nominal sum, a piece of property that he had acquired on Washington Street, above Chippewa, subject to the condition that they build a church for the Germans and establish a college. This was the origin of St. Michael's Church and of Canisius College. The col- lege, however, was not founded until 1870. When founded
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CANISIUS COLLEGE .- BUFFALO SEMINARY
it was to realize the purpose of Bishop Timon, and its buildings, when erected, were on part of the ground which the Bishop intended for that use.
The college is conducted by the Fathers of the Society of Jesus. It receives both day scholars from the city and boarder-students from elsewhere. In 1906 its charter was so amended as to authorize the organization of an academic department. It now affords, therefore, both a high school and a collegiate education. Since its incorporation in 1883 by the Regents of the University it has power to confer degrees and academical honors. The college has a library of about 26,000 volumes. Its president and prefect of studies at this time is the Rev. Augustine A. Miller, S. J. The professors in its faculty are nine in number, with seven additional instructors in special branches. The roll of its students in 1910 numbered about 400 in all. Recently, by general subscription, a large fund for new buildings has been raised. The buildings planned are four in number, namely: The college proper, a college of science, a chapel and a gymnasium. They are to be placed on grounds ten acres in extent, at the corner of Main and Jefferson streets. Five acres of the ground will be used as an athletic field. The old college building will be continued in use as the seat of a preparatory school.
On the suggestion of the Rev. Dr. M. L. R. P. Thomson, a few gentlemen met at the residence of Stephen G. Austin, in the spring of 1851, to consider the need of an academic school for girls. The result of their conference was the calling of a more public meeting, at the hotel then known as the Phelps House, at which the project was undertaken, stock subscriptions for it opened, and a board of trustees chosen. The first president of the board was Samuel F. Pratt, who was succeeded by Horatio Shumway. Mr. Shumway was the friend and legal adviser of Jabez
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Goodell, and his influence was helpful, no doubt, in deter- mining Mr. Goodell to make a generous gift of land and money to the contemplated institution, amounting in value to $15,500.
The Johnson Cottage (former residence of Dr. Ebenezer Johnson) was acquired, and a school building, to be known as Goodell Hall, was erected on the Cottage ground, but facing Johnson Park. This was dedicated on the 6th of July, 1852. Meantime, the school had been opened in the Cottage, under the name of the Buffalo Female Academy, with the Rev. Dr. Charles E. West, of Brooklyn, as its prin- cipal, and it had an assured success from the beginning. Dr. West was succeeded in 1859 by the Rev. Dr. Albert T. Chester, and the latter by Mrs. Charles F. Hartt in 1887. In 1889 the name of the school was changed to that of the Buffalo Seminary. Mrs. Hartt resigned in 1899, and her place was taken by Miss Jessie E. Beers, until 1903, when Miss L. Gertrude Angell, who had been associate principal for the past two years, became the head of the school.
By this time the northward movement of population in the city had made the site of Goodell Hall an inconvenient one for the pupils of the Seminary, and it was moved to temporary quarters in the building of the Twentieth Cen- tury Club, pending arrangements for a new building of its own. The Graduates' Association of its alumnae, a strong and much devoted organization, took the enterprise in hand. An excellent site on Bidwell Parkway was pur- chased, and a fine building made ready for opening in Sep- tember, 1909.
At one time and another there have been many com- mercial schools and colleges in Buffalo, but one only among those now existing dates far back in time. Bryant & Strat- ton's Business College was established in 1854, being one of the first in a chain of affiliated schools which reached forty-
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BISHOP TIMON'S CREATIONS
eight cities in the end. Mr. J. C. Bryant was at the head of the institution in Buffalo until his death, not many years ago, since which time it has been conducted by his son. In 1895 the college took possession of a capacious building, erected for its own use, on West Genesee Street, near Niagara Square.
Miss Nardin and three companions of the community of the Sacred Heart of Mary came to Buffalo in 1857, and opened, in a rented building on Seneca Street, the school which has been known familiarly as Miss Nardin's Academy. Property adjoining St. Joseph's Cathedral, on Franklin Street, was bought and built upon for the academy in 1863, and that was its residence until 1890, when it entered its present commodious home, on Cleveland Avenue.
Le Couteulx St. Mary's Institution for the Improved Instruction of Deaf Mutes owes its existence to a "Benevo- lent Society for the Deaf and Dumb," which Bishop Timon,-the originator of so many of the works of benevo- lence conducted in Buffalo,-organized in 1853. Louis Le Couteulx, generous supporter of the good bishop's kindly undertakings, gave an acre of land on Edward Street to the society, and three small framed dwelling houses were bought and removed thereto. It was not, however, until 1859 that the St. Mary's Society was prepared to give special instruction to mutes. Three Sisters of St. Joseph, who had mastered the sign language, came then from St. Louis to be teachers ; but funds for the support of the school were insufficient, and it had to be suspended for a time. Sister Mary Anne went, however, in 1861, to Philadelphia, and prepared herself at an institution in that city to take up the work of deaf-mute teaching, which she has conducted and directed in the Le Couteulx St. Mary's Institution ever . since.
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Before the return of Sister Mary Anne from Phila- delphia, Bishop Timon had brought about the erection of a four-story brick building on Edward Street, and the school and home were reopened there in 1862. In its first year it had but eleven pupils; but at the end of four years it needed enlargement of its building, and an east wing was added. In 1899 it was removed to the fine building it now occupies, at 2253 Main Street, erected on twenty-three and a half acres of ground, which had been secured for it, with wise forecast, fifteen years before. Here it has accommoda- tion for 200 pupils, with a present attendance of 174. "The system of instruction in use is the 'combined' or American system, which includes all known methods. By it all grades of intellect can be reached. Speech and speech-reading are taught. The course of studies extends from the kinder- garten through the grammar course, the same as in the public and parochial schools. Pupils of the advanced grades take Regents' examinations." The industrial train- ing includes printing, tailoring, carpenter work, shoemak- ing, chair-caning, cooking and dressmaking. All the clothes and shoes worn by the students are made in the institution.
The institution is maintained mainly by a per capita ap- propriation from the State and from counties sending pupils, being free to all deaf children of the State, of any race or creed. It is one of the largest and best of its kind in the country. Sister M. Dositheus is the assistant prin- cipal; the Hon. George A. Lewis is president and Bishop Colton vice-president of the board of trustees.
The Holy Angels' Academy was founded in 1861 by a few Grey Nuns, who had been teaching previously in a parochial school. It was opened in a rented dwelling on Niagara Street, and acquired a prosperous footing very soon. Becoming a chartered institution in 1869, its building
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DR. BRIGGS' CLASSICAL SCHOOL
on Porter Avenue was erected in 1872-3, but partially burned in 1879 and rebuilt the same year. Wings added to the building in 1887 and 1899 denoted the steady growth of the Academy, and a remarkable evolution was wrought in the next few years. By act of the Legislature of the State, in April, 1908, the institution was reincorporated, under the title of D'Youville College and Academy of the Holy Angels, and was invested with authority to confer degrees and diplomas, except in medicine and law. A fine build- ing for the new college was erected on ground contiguous to that of the Academy, fronting on Prospect Avenue and Prospect Park, at a cost of $125,000, and it was opened for instruction in September, 1908.
In a privately and choicely printed thin volume, entitled "Memoranda of the Buffalo Classical School," it is related that "in September, 1863, some three or four prominent citizens of Buffalo, having sons whom they wished to send to college, began to cast about for a school in the city at which a suitable preparation for entering upon an advanced course of study could be obtained. At that date Buffalo was lamentably deficient in schools of that character. Parents who desired to give their sons a liberal education were com- pelled to exile them at an age when they reasonably thought they needed the fostering care of home, rather than the regime of the average boarding school.
"After careful deliberation, these gentlemen, Pascal P. Pratt, Bronson C. Rumsey, E. P. Beals, and James M. Ganson, decided that a private school, supported and con- trolled by themselves, offered the best means for attaining the end sought. In pursuance of their purpose they opened a house once fronting on Emily Street. This house for several years stood near the center of Mr. Bronson C. Rumsey's extensive grounds, and was in sight from Dela- ware Avenue."
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For principal of the school thus planned and provided for its promoters made a wise and fortunate choice. They engaged Horace Briggs (made Doctor Horace Briggs a little later by the reception, from Williams College, of the honorary degree of Ph. D.) who had been in charge of the Latin and Greek classes of the Buffalo Central High School for the past two years. Doctor Briggs, or Professor Briggs, as he came to be known more familiarly, began then an edu- cational work which proved singularly important to Buffalo, because of the number and quality of the liberally educated young men who came under his influence and passed through his hands in the shaping years of their youth. In the first term of the school it had but five pupils; in the first year but thirteen. From year to year the number grew, but seems never to have gone far beyond forty; and the entire roll of its students for the twenty-two years of its existence counts only two hundred and thirty-one; but it is a surprising list of the familiar names of men who have had lead and prominence since in the public and private life, in the business and the professional activity, of the town.
At the end of the school year in 1885 Professor Briggs, still in full possession of everything that had made the school a success, felt nevertheless, as he has said, that he "had reached an age when he did not delight to bear heavy bur- dens," and that "it was time for him to step out of the ranks and leave the battle to younger men." The school survived his retirement from it only two years. At the time of this writing, in 1910, Dr. Briggs is still with us, in his 93d year, as erect, as firm of step, and as alert of mind as the youngest of his pupils:
The memorial of the school, mentioned above, was printed in 1902 by those who had been "boys" in it, and in whose memory it is cherished fondly.
From a small school for girls, opened by Sisters of St.
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CULTURAL EVOI
percipal of the school thus planned and provided for gummers made a wise and fortunate choice. They wed Horace Briggs (made Doctor Horace Briggs a bitte later by the reception, from Williams College, of the honorary degree of Ph. D.) who had been in charge of the Latin and Greek classes of the Buffalo Central High School for the past two years. Doctor Briggs, or Professor Briggs, as he came to be known more familiarly, began then an edu- cational work which proved singularly important to Buffalo, because of the number and quality of the liberally educated young men who came under his influence and passed through his GEORGE HowARpg years of their youth. In the first term of the school it had liut five pupils ; in the first year but tififteen Born Charlotte, Chittenden County, Vermont, June 26, grew, : 1810. Came from Westfield, where he was in the employ but seems never to have gone. tar Dev n" Rumsey, one of the pioneer tanners of this sec- enttion.roIn 1837 formed a partnership with Aaron Rumsey, exi which' continued about four years. In 1844 Mr. Howard sur formed a co-partnership in the tanning business with Mr. e had lea Myron Pr Bush which lasted about thirty-five years; ande life, in which they amassed large wealth. Mr. Howarde died n. m the business au the August 30, 1886, at Buffalo.
At the end of the school year in 1885 Professor Briggs, still in full possession of everything that had made the school a success, felt nevertheless, as he has said, that he "had reached an age when he did not delight to bear heavy bur- dens, and that "it was time for him to step out of the ranks and leave the battle to younger men." The school survived h's retirement trom it only two years. At the sim va mis writing in 910, Dr Briggs is still with us it bes ond year, were t, as hrm of step and as aler faungest of his pupils
The memorial ut the chel, nemrium above, was printed In 1902 by those who had bei 'buy" in it, and in whose memory it is cher shed fondly
From a small schoot for girls, opened by Sisters of St.
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153
ST. VINCENT'S TECHNICAL .- ST. MARGARET'S
Francis, in 1874, the Buffalo Academy of the Sacred Heart has been developed. The large building that it occupies at 749 Washington Street was erected in 1897.
In 1886 the Sisters of Charity, who conduct St. Vincent's Female Orphan Asylum, began the experiment of a training school in connection with it, in order to prepare young girls for self-support. The experiment had entire success, and resulted in what has been conducted for many years under the name of St. Vincent's Technical School. When the Orphan Asylum, in 1901, was removed to the large new fireproof building which it now occupies, on the corner of Riley and Ellicott streets, its previous home, in the adjacent building at 1313 Main Street, was appropriated to the Technical School. It is announced to be a self-supporting institution, for which charity is never solicited. "The cur- riculum of the school embraces domestic science, plain and fancy sewing, dress-making, millinery, and a commercial course." "Independently of the above named branches, which belong exclusively to the school, care is taken to secure special training for pupils showing marked talents and dispositions for other avocations." Applicants must be over fourteen and under seventeen years of age. The majority of the pupils have been transferred from the chil- dren's department of the Orphan Asylum after finishing their grammar course; but other girls wishing to learn trades are received.
St. Margaret's School was founded in 1884 by an asso- ciation composed of members of the Protestant Episcopal Church who desired to provide for the education of their daughters and for other young girls. The prime movers in the foundation were Dr. M. D. Mann, General Rufus L. Howard, Dr. H. E. Hopkins, William Meadows, James R. Smith, A. J. Barnard, Edward S. Dann, Thomas Loomis.
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CULTURAL EVOLUTION
Dr. Mann has been the president of the association since it was formed, except during an interval of four years, in which General Howard presided. The first principal of the school, for five years, was Miss Isabella White, who was succeeded for about ten years by Miss E. Currie Tuck. The present principal is Mrs. Helen Holmes Van Winkle.
The school was opened in the old Kip homestead, 640 Main Street, but removed in the first year to its present location, at the corner of Franklin and North streets. Its pupils have averaged between 100 and 150 in number since its first year. The school is under the regents, and its cer- tificate admits to Wellesley, Vassar and Smith colleges, and to the Woman's College of Baltimore.
The Elmwood School, a primary and grammar grade school for boys and girls, grew from a kindergarten, estab- lished in 1889, on West Utica Street, by Miss Emma Gib- bons and Miss Jessica E. Beers. At the end of two years these ladies were preparing to close the school, for purposes of study elsewhere; but a few ladies who were interested in the beginning it had made persuaded Miss Beers to remain in the work, undertaking to enlarge its scope and make its footing secure. These energetic ladies,-Mrs. Adelbert Moot, Mrs. Austin R. Preston, Mrs. Louis A. Bull, Mrs. Charles A. Sweet and Mrs. Alexander M. Curtis,-carried out their undertaking so effectively that, within a little more than a year the school was planted in a new building of its own, at 213 Bryant Street, erected and equipped, to a high degree of perfection, at a cost of about $30,000.
In 1895 the Elmwood School was incorporated, with Mr. Edward R. Rice in the presidency of its board of trustees, as he has continued to be since. His recent associates in the board are Miss Jessica E. Beers (principal of the school), Mrs. Carlton R. Jewett, Mrs. Louis A. Bull, Adelbert Moot, William B. Hoyt, Henry Ware Sprague, Stephen M.
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ELMWOOD AND FRANKLIN SCHOOLS
Clement, John B. Olmsted. The school has twelve instruc- tors; occupies two buildings; can accommodate about 200 pupils ; has among its equipments a shop for work in wood and metal, a studio, with models, for art work, a large gym- nasium, and an attractive school garden.
In 1899 an educational union between the Elmwood School and the Buffalo Seminary was arranged, combining the work of the upper grades in the latter with the primary work of the former.
A class of mothers who met to study methods of teaching children became the founders of an important school. Their first undertaking was a kindergarten, and in 1894 they brought about the institution of the Franklin School, under the direction of Dr. Frank McMurry, now a professor in the Teachers' College connected with Columbia University. President Eliot, of Harvard, and President Butler, of Columbia, were advisers in the planning of the institution. In December, 1894, the school was chartered by the Regents of the University of the State of New York, the incorpo- rators being Charles G. Stockton, M. A. Crockett, Seward A. Simons, Robert L. Fryer, Frank F. Williams, William A. Rogers, Charlotte S. Glenny, Mary L. Rochester, Eliza- beth C. Mann, and Harriet E. Green. A lot on Park Street, between Allen and North, was bought, and a build- ing erected which needed to be doubled in size in 1898, when it represented an investment of about $40,000.
Dr. McMurry, the first principal of the school, remained with it but a few years, during which its work was modelled on fine lines. He was called to the Teachers' College in 1898, and Professor Herbert G. Lord, who succeeded him after a short interval, was drawn away to Columbia Univer- sity in 1900. The Franklin School was then united in man- agement with the Nichols School, which had been con- ducted for a number of years by Mr. William Nichols, at
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CULTURAL EVOLUTION
83 Ashland Avenue. Since the making of that arrangement the Franklin School takes boys from the kindergarten through their studies to the age of twelve, when they pass to the Nichols School; but girls are carried to the end of the course, which prepares them for college.
Within the past year the Nichols School, still bearing the name of its deceased founder, has been placed on a noble footing by a number of wealthy patrons, whose liberality has endowed it with one of the most perfect of school build- ings, equipped with remarkable completeness, and situated admirably, in ample grounds, on the northern edge of Dela- ware Park, at the corner of Amherst and Colvin streets. The successor to Mr. Nichols as head-master is Mr. Joseph Dana Allen, lately at the head of one of the largest private schools of Philadelphia.
"To give Jewish children of both sexes a knowledge of the Jewish religion, language and history," the Buffalo Hebrew School was founded in 1904 by the Jewish residents of the east side of the city. Four teachers give instruction in it to about 300 children in daily attendance. The officers of its board of trustees are Mr. H. Harriton, president; Mr. M. Aronson, vice-president; Mr. A. S. Cohen, treasurer; Mr. M. Diamond, secretary.
CHAPTER VI LITERARY INSTITUTIONS AND ORGANIZATIONS
A S early as 1816 a little village collection of books, about 700 in number, was formed and styled "The Buffalo Library" by a small company of stock- holders, who maintained it till 1832. Near the close of 1830 another library and literary society was organized under the name of the Buffalo Lyceum, which showed much activity for a time, but had no long life. The undertaking which accomplished the real planting of a durable bibli- othecal institution was started on the 20th of February, 1836, by a published notice, requesting "the young men of Buffalo, friendly to the founding of a Young Men's Asso- ciation, for mutual improvement in literature and science," to meet at the Court House on Monday, the 22d day of February, at 7 p. m.
At the meeting, duly held, with the Hon. Hiram Pratt in the chair, a constitution, based on that of the Albany Young Men's Association, was adopted, and the meeting adjourned for one week. At its second session the Asso- ciation was organized completely by the election of the following-named officers: Seth C. Hawley, president; Dr. Charles Winne, Samuel N. Callender and George Brown, vice-presidents ; Frederick P. Stevens and A. G. C. Coch- rane, corresponding and recording secretaries ; John R. Lee, treasurer; Oliver G. Steele, Henry K. Smith, William H. Lacy, George W. Allen, Charles H. Raymond, Henry R. Williams, George E. Hayes, Halsey R. Wing, Rushmore Poole, and Hunting S. Chamberlain, managers.
This was early in the last year of that mad period of
I57
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speculation and paper wealth which preceded the great collapse of 1837. Everybody was feeling rich, and it was easy to give the new institution a splendid launching on its long career. A subscription amounting to $6,700 was raised ; a large purchase of books was made; the surviving collections of the old Buffalo Library and the Lyceum were turned in, and before the year ended the Y. M. A. Library had about 2,700 volumes on its shelves. Its greater pride, however, was in the 44 weekly, 10 monthly and 6 quarterly publications on file in its reading room, making it the com- pletest of any west of New York.
That the Association was not broken down by the stress of hard times, which came on it soon, is proof of sturdy pluck in the young men who held it up. It carried a burden of debt for many years, and lived pinchingly, but it lived. Its first rooms were on the upper floors of a building three doors below Seneca Street, on Main. When open they were under the eye of a portrait painter, Mr. B. W. Jenks, who occupied adjoining rooms. Some time passed before the attendance of a regular librarian was secured. The first to hold that office was Mr. Charles H. Raymond, to whom Mr. Charles D. Norton, in a historical address, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Association, awarded high praise for the labor he performed and the patience and reso- lution "with which he persisted in his unrewarded toil." Dr. Raymond was succeeded by Mr. Phineas Sargent in 1839.
In 1841 the Association removed its rooms to South Divi- sion Street, near Main, where a small lecture room was fitted up. In these quarters it was greatly cramped, and in 1848 an ambitious effort was made to raise funds for a building of its own. The project failed ; but four years later com- modious quarters were secured by lease in the American Block, on the west side of Main Street, half way between
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