A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 44

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188

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Herewith awaiting your Honors' kind and favorable answer, and commending ourselves,

Honorable, wise, prudent, and most discreet Gentlemen, to your favor, we pray for your Honors God's protection, together with a hap- py and prosperous administration unto salva- tion. Your Honors' servants and subjects.

The Schouts and Schepens of the village aforesaid, by order of the same,

ADRIAN HEGEMAN, Secretary.

In answer to the above the "Honorable, wise, prudent and most discreet gentlemen" agreed to pay the teacher, grave-digger, etc., fifty guilders a year in wampum; and as he was afterward appointed reader "and Secre- tary to the Town Clerk," his remuneration in time became fairly respectable. De Bevoise appears to have been a personal protege of Governor Stuyvesant, and this probably ac- counts for his success both with the local and the Provincial authorities. From the agree- ment made in 1682 with Johannes Van Eckelen who was then appointed schoolmaster of Flat- bush, we learn more of the duties of these early preceptors. Eckelen, it may be said, resided at Albany before settling on Long Island, and continued to act as schoolmaster until 1706, probably the date of his death. In 1698 he was appointed clerk of the county.

The agreement referred to reads :

I. The school shall begin at 8 o'clock in the morning and go out at II o'clock. It shall begin again at I o'clock and end at 4 o'clock. The bell shall be rung before the school begins.

II. When the school opens, one of the children shall read the morning prayer, as it stands in the catechism, and close with the prayer before dinner. In the afternoon it shall begin with the prayer after dinner and close with the evening prayer. The evening school shall begin with the Lord's Praver, and close by singing a Psalm.

III. He shall instruct the children in the common prayers and the questions and an- swers of the catechism on Wednesdays and Saturdays, to enable them to say their cate- chism on Sunday afternoons in the church before the afternoon service, otherwise on the Monday following, at which the schoolmaster shall be present. He shall demean himself

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patiently and friendly toward the children in their instruction, and be active and attentive to their improvement.

IV. He shall be bound to keep his school nine months in succession, from September to June, one year with another, or the like period of time for a year, according to the agreement with his predecessor ; he shall, however, keep the school nine months, and always be pres- ent himself.

He shall be chorister of the church, ring the bell three times before service, and read a chapter of the Bible in the church between the second and third ringing of the bell; after the third ringing he shall read the Ten Com- mandments and the twelve Articles of Faith, and then set the Psalm. In the afternoon, after the third ringing of the bell, he shall read a short chapter, or one of the Psalms of David, as the congregation are assembling. Afterward he shall again set the Psalm.

When the minister shall preach at Brook- lyn or New Utrecht he shall be bound to read twice before the congregation a sermon from the book used for the purpose. The afternoon sermon will be on the catechism of Dr. Van- der Hagen, and thus he will follow the turns of the minister. He shall hear the children recite the questions and answers of the cate- chisni on that Sunday, and he shall instruct them. When the minister preaches at Flat- lands he shall perform a like service.

He shall provide a basin of water for the baptism, for which he shall receive twelve stuyvers in wampum for every baptism from the parents or sponsors. He shall furnish the minister, in writing, the names and ages of the children to be baptized, together with the names of the parents and sponsors ; he shall also serve as a messenger from the consis- tories.

He shall give the funeral invitations and toll the bells, for which services he shall re- ceive, for persons of fifteen years of age and upward, twelve guilders; and for persons un- der fifteen, eight guilders. If he shall invite out of the town he shall receive three addi- tional guilders for every town. If he shall cross the river to New York he shall have four guilders more.

He shall receive for a speller or reader in the day school three guilders for a quarter, and for a writer four. In the evening school he shall receive for a speller or reader four guilders, and five guilders for a writer per quarter.

The residue of his salary shall be four hundred guilders in wheat, of wampum value, deliverable at Brooklyn ferry, and for his serv- ice from October to May 234 guilders in wheat, at the same place, with the dwelling, pasturages and meadow appertaining to the school.

These regulations were those which prac- tically, with the trifling local variations, pre- vailed in the early schools all over Long Isl- and. The great differences between them and their modern successors was that in them moral and religious training were the most important features, while in our day secular education in the public schools takes prece- dence of all else.

The schoolmaster was little better than an inferior assistant to the minister, "the minis- ter's man," as the kaleyard novelists and the Scotch story tellers call him; and while, as. in Brooklyn, he gradually emerged from the status of being a grave-digger and local handy man, he continued until long after the Revo- lution was over to eke out his salary as teacher by assuming various humble duties.

It is impossible to estimate very clearly the value of these schools in the way of secu- lar training. That they were the means of instilling into the minds and hearts of several generations of Long Islanders a knowledge of God and His Commandments, a reverence for the Scriptures and all things sacred, and won for the people of the island most deservedly a reputation for being a God-fearing, honest, moral and reliable race, is certain ; but they certainly failed to make the mass educated, which in modern times we would interpret as what was most to be desired in any system of education. The letters and manuscripts of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries which have come down to us show equally a sovereign contempt for spelling and capitali- zation ; grammar was an unknown quantity, and punctuation a mystery beyond human ken. We question if, say in 1750, a boy on Long Island could be found who would be able to. define the boundaries of the province in which

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he lived, or who could repeat the names of a dozen men outside of his own circle of ac- quaintances or tell the whereabouts of a dozen places in the country apart from the section in which his own days were spent. Of history he knew nothing beyond a few bare facts con- cerning Holland or England, which came to him more in the form of traditions than as actual incidents. He took his notions of civil government from his church, and the minis- ter was his guide, philosopher and friend, at once his spiritual and his secular director, his prayer-book and his encyclopedia. As he ad- vanced in life his leading idea about govern- ment was that it was good when it interfered the least with his movements and cost the smallest possible amount in taxes. Whatever else their "High Mightinesses" or the "Lord Protector" might do, all would go well when such conditions prevailed. They could read Kieft's proclamations or bear the fussiness of Stuyvesant with equanimity; but the increase of taxes under a Dutch or an English ruler caused trouble, and a rumor that the old church was to be sacrificed to that of England gave the first start to the idea of political freedom.

The educational records prior to the Revo- lution, apart from such church schools, as they may be called, of which we have been writing, are very meager. A school was established in Bushwick as early as 1661, and it continued in existence until replaced in almost modern times by another similar institution on its site.

In 1703 the Society of Friends decided to build a school in Flushing, and at once set about erecting a suitable building "about Rich- ard Griffin's lot, which is near the center of the town," and Thomas Makins was appoint- ed teacher. In 1721 there was a school at Bed- ford Corners, which for some sixty years was taught by John Vandervoort, who was impris- oned during the Revolution. It lasted until about 1812. In 1749 a school was kept at the Ferry by John Clark, who described himself very aptly as a "philomath," and at whose establishment "reading, writing, vulgar and

decimal arithmetic, the extraction of the square and cube root, navigation and survey- ing" were taught-a thoroughly practical and satisfactory selection of studies, it seems to us, for the time.

In 1763 it was advertised that several of the land owners, including John Rapalye, who af- terward lost his estate on account of his Tory principles, Jacob Sebring and Aris Remsen had hired Punderson Ansten, A. B., of Yale College, to teach Greek and Latin at the Ferry; but whether in the same establishment then or formerly presided over by Philomath Clark is not stated. In 1773 an advertisement tells us that Latin and Greek were taught at the Flatbush Grammar School, of which John Copp was then master. About 1770 a school was established on the old Gowanus·road, near Forty-fourth street, which remained in active existence for many years. In 1775 a school was opened in the Wallabout district, but the teacher, Elipah Freeman Paine, was too much of a patriot to wield a ferrule when he might shoulder a musket, so he soon left the school and joined the Continental army at Boston. In 1778 an effort to revive the school was made when a teacher was advertised for to teach reading, writing and arithmetic. "Immediately prior to the Revolutionary War," says Gabriel Furman in his "Notes" (1824), "that part of the town of Brooklyn which is now comprised in the bounds of the village and for some dis- tance without those bounds, supported but one school, of nineteen scholars, five of whom were of the family of Mr. Andrew Patchen. The school was situated on the hill, on property that was then owned by Isaac Horsfield (be- tween Doughty and Willow, Hicks and Co- lumbia streets), but now belongs to the heirs of Cary Ludlow, deceased. The teacher was Benjamin Brown, a stanch Whig from Con- necticut."

Even when the Revolutionary struggle was fought and won it is impossible to say that education, secular education, had advanced much beyond the 1750 stage on Long Island. The children at school still plodded on much

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as before, wrestling with moral and religious questions, but the political upheaval had taught the people much more. The agitation and dis- cussion prior to the outbreak of hostilities had brought to their knowledge ancient and mod- ern history, an understanding of the princi- ples of government and a full realization of the drift of human progress. It brought them face to face with the rest of the world, and

year to Erasmus Hall, at Flatbush, although it did not actually begin its work until some two years later. General William Floyd, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independ- ence, presided at the meeting at which Clin- ton Academy was called into being; but its real founder, the prime figure in the movement for its establishment, was the Rev. Dr. Samuel Buel, a native of Coventry, Connecticut, and

THE HOWARD PAYNE COTTAGE, AT EASTHAMPTON, L. 1.

showed what had to be accomplished, so that they might hold their own in the national struggle for existence which set in as soon as peace was declared and liberty was acknowl- edged, in 1784.

The change for the better came in, how- ever, not long after the sword was sheathed. In 1784 Clinton Academy at Easthampton, the first institution incorporated by the Regents of the State of New York, was built and or- ganized, and in 1787 it received its charter. A similar document was issued in the same

a graduate of Yale, who was the minister of the Presbyterian Church at Easthampton from September 16, 1746, until his death, July 19, 1798,-a period of near fifty-two years. The academy was divided into two departments, -- classics and English and writing,-and the first master of the latter department was Will- iam Payne, the father of John Howard Payne, the author of the "world-song" of "Home, Sweet Home," who spent several years of his early life in Easthampton. Thompson gives Payne the highest praise for his ability as a

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teacher, and credits him with having started the practical work of the institution on the high plane which led to its prosperity and fame. For a long time it held the leading po- sition among Long Island's seminaries, and it received pupils from widely distant parts of the country. Toward the middle of the cen- tury just passed, however, its attendance be- gan to fall off, other institutions equal in edu- cational merit and with more modern notions and appliances gradually forced it to become merely a local institution and slowly but surely to lose its hold' even in its humble capacity as a village school, until it became more valua- ble as a relic of the past than as a developer of the knowledge and thought and manners and aspirations of youth. Yet in its time it performed a grand service, many men of more than local celebrity received part, at least, of their educational training within its walls, and its influence on the moral and intellectual progress of Suffolk county was great beyond measure.

The credit of founding Erasmus Hall at Flatbush mainly belongs to another zealous minister of the Gospel, the Rev. Dr. John H. Livingston. As this institution approached more nearly to collegiate rank than any other on Long Island, and holds a much higher place to-day as a place of learning than many more- talked-about western colleges and universities, . we may be permitted to examine its early his- tory at some length.

up the pastorate of the North Dutch Church on William street, near Fulton street. His ministry was interrupted by the British occu- pation of New York, but he spent the interval in preaching in various parts of the State. In 1784 he was appointed professor of theology, and it was this appointment which led to the establishment of Erasmus Hall. It was not until 1786, however, that a building was erect- ed in which the proposed work could be carried on. The sum of £915 had been raised for the purpose, mainly by citizens of Flatbush, and

REV. DR. JOHN H. LIVINGSTON.

Dr. Livingston was a descendant of the old patroon and a member of a family which gives a structure of one hundred feet front and to New York many of its brightest names. thirty-six feet in depth was erected. The local He was born at Poughkeepsie in 1746, was church lent its aid, and, besides securing to graduated at Yale in 1762, and afterward the institution, practically free of cost, the land studied for the ministry at Utrecht. Through- on which it stood, awarded it other practical cut his career he was a stanch and uncompro- aid. But the movement was not regarded by mising advocate of American independence in the entire population of Flatbush with placid all things, and this he showed even as early approval ; many indeed of the oldest and most in life as when in Holland studying for his influential of the residents were really and life work: for he is credited with securing the emphatically opposed to its location in their independence of the Reformed Church in midst; and it is curious that while their argu- America from the Classis at Amsterdam. ments seem crude and silly their conclusions

Returning to New York in 1770, he tock were in many ways amply sustained. How-

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ever, the friends of the institution persevered and were rewarded by receiving from the Regents of the State University on November 20, 1787, a deed of incorporation. The incor- porators named were John Vanderbilt, Walter Minto, Peter Lefferts, Johannes E. Lot, Aquilla Giles, Cornelius Vanderveer, George Martense, Jacob Lefferts, W. B. Gifford, Hendrick Suydam, John J. Vanderbilt, Rev. Martinus Schoonmaker, Philip Nagel, Peter Cornell, Rev. John H. Livingston, D. D., James Wilson, Sam. Provost, John Mason and Comfort Sands.

The first principal was Dr. Walter Minto, a native of Scotland, who was born at Col- denham December 6, 1753, and for a time was a tutor in the family of George Johnson, M. P., one of the Commissioners who came here in the interests of peace in 1778. Minto settled in the United States in 1786. He did not hold his connection with the Hall very long, for at the close of 1787 he was called to the chair of mathematics at Princeton Col- lege and continued in that position until his death, in 1796. He was the author of several erudite scientific works, now practically for- gotten. The opening exhibition of the school was held on September 27, 1787, and was at- tended by Governor Clinton and many men prominent in the affairs of the State.

From the first it was aimed that the institution should take a high position as a seat of learning, and this was emphasized in its being named after Desiderius Erasmus, the greatest exponent of literature and learning which the old Netherlands had produced. When Dr. Livingston was chosen as principal a corps of able teachers was engaged, while the course of study as laid out was far in ad- vance of any other then to be found in such institutions. Dr. Livingston hoped to make Erasmus Hall one of the recognized educa- tional centers of the then young republic, and this hope seemed about to be fully realized in 1794, when the Dutch Reformed Church re- solved to establish its Theological Seminary in Erasmus Hall, and in connection with it,

and under the direction of Dr. Livingston. But this arrangement lasted only for a few years, and then the Theological Seminary was removed to New Brunswick, New Jersey, where it still remains. The following story of the fortunes of the Hall after that is from the pen of Dr. Stiles :

Rev. Dr. Livingston resigned in 1792, and Dr. Wilson was chosen in his place. He held the position of Principal, though em- ployed also as Classical Professor at Colum- bia College, until 1804. This he was enabled: to do by employing experienced men as his- teachers. Rev. Peter Lowe was appointed to succeed Dr. Wilson as Principal, and re- mained until his death in 1818. Dr. Strong states that in 1797, and again in 1809, the trustees sought, but did not obtain, from the legislature, the privilege of raising £1,200 by lottery, in order to liquidate the debt. The plan adopted by the trustees in former days was to employ some prominent man as prin- cipal, and then engage experienced teachers. who should serve under him. The principal exerted merely a governing power, and par- ticipated only to a very limited degree in the work of teaching. In later years the principal has acted also as the first teacher, and em- ploys experienced assistants. Mr. Albert Oblenis was employed while Rev. Mr. Lowe was principal, as first teacher. Next we find the name of Joab Cooper, in 1806, the author of Cooper's Virgil, so well known as a text book in the schools and colleges, for so many years. He remained for two years and was succeeded by Mr. Valentine Derry, upon whose resignation, in 1809, Mr. Richard Whyte Thompson was appointed first teacher. He resigned in 1814, and was followed by William Thayre, appointed in December, 1814. He remained, however, only a part of a year, when the trustees called Mr. Will- iam Ironsides. In 1816 Mr. Joab Cooper was again appointed, but resigned at the end of the year. The position was held for the next two years by Mr. Andrew Craig. Upon the death of the Principal, Rev. Peter Lowe, and the resignation of Mr. Craig, due to failing health, the trustees appointed, in August, 1818, the Rev. Joseph Penney, as Principal. He was the first Principal who resided at the Hall and had charge of the classes. He em- ployed as assistant Rev. John Mulligan. They held the position until 1821, when Rev.

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Timothy Clowes, D. D., accepted the office. In 1823 Mr. Jonathan Kellogg became Prin- cipal. Under his administration the academy flourished greatly ; he made many changes in methods of teaching, and in the arrangements about the school-rooms. The trustees in 1826-27 built a large wing, 50 by 25 feet, for additional school-rooms, on the northeast cor- ner of the building, at a cost of $1,500. Mr. Kellogg also made great improvements upon the exterior of the academy, and in the ap- pearance of the grounds. Nearly all of the beautiful trees which now adorn the grounds

of the Albany Academy, Professor in the Theological Seminary at New Brunswick, and President of Rutgers College. During the time Dr. Campbell was Principal the Regents, in 1835, determined to establish a department for the instruction of common- school teachers in each of the eight senatorial districts. Erasmus Hall was chosen for the Southern District. High price of board, and other agencies, hindered the success of the plan in relation to Erasmus Hall, and only two applications were received. Consequent- ly, in 1836, the trustees resigned the trust, and

ERASMUS HALL 1N 1845.

were planted by him. Matters did not, how- ever, proceed satisfactorily after a few years ; and, because of intemperance, he was called upon, in 1834, to resign the position. In May, 1834, the trustees appointed Rev. William H. Campbell, who had for some time taught a select school in the village, as Principal. "Through his superior qualifications as teach- er he not only gave the highest satisfaction,

but also infused in the hearts of the inhab- itants an earnest desire for a liberal educa- tion to a degree which had never before ex- isted." Dr. Campbell remained until 1839, when ill health forced him to resign; and he afterward occupied the position of Principal

the Salem Academy, in Washington county, was chosen by the Regents.

In May, 1839, Rev. Dr. Penney, who, since his resignation in 1821, had held the position of President of Hamilton College, returned to Flatbush and succeeded Dr. Campbell as Principal, which position he held until November 1, 1841, when Mr. James Ferguson, A. M., was chosen. In June, 1843, he resigned the position, and the trustees ap- pointed Rev. Richard D. Van Kleeck as Prin- cipal. Mr. Van Kleeck was a most thorough and efficient teacher, and under his care the institution was greatly prospered. A large number of scholars came from other States,

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and, for many years, a number of Mexican and Cuban students boarded at the academy. Mr. Van Kleeck's health having failed, he resigned on February 22, 1860, and was suc- ceeded by Rev. William W. Howard. On April 19, 1863, Mr. Howard, having received a call to the Presbyterian church, at Aurora, Cayuga county, New York, resigned as Prin- cipal. The trustees then chose the Rev. E. F. Mack as Principal. Mr. Mack held the position for eleven years, and, in September, 1874, was succeeded by Mr. Jared Hasbrouck. Upon the resignation of Mr. Hasbrouck the trustees appointed, as Principal, in February, 1879, Rev. Robert G. Strong, a former grad- uate of the academy, who for several years had conducted a large and prosperous select school in the village. Mr. Strong accepted the position and in September, 1879, moved his school into the academy.

In 1878 Flatbush appropriated $19,000 for the erection of a new school building, which was occupied in the following year. When consolidation with Brooklyn became effected Erasmus Hall fell into line as one of the schools in the general system, but in 1896, when the high-school system was in- troduced, Erasmus Hall, under the able direc- tion of Dr. Gunnison, started on a new lease of usefulness and has every year advanced until it now ranks as one of the institutions which may be called the pride of America's system of education.

Union Hall, Jamaica, was erected in 1791 and received its charter March 9, 1792, being the sixth establishment of its kind authorized by the Regents of the New York University. It received its name, it has been said, because its establishment was the result of a united effort on the part of the people of Jamaica, Flushing, Newtown and New York. The initiatory step was taken at a mecting held March 1, 1791, in the house of Mrs. Johanna Hinchman in Jamaica, at which the Rev. Rynier Van Nest presided. A committee was there appointed to collect subscriptions for the establishment of an academy, and £800 set as the limit needed. When the amount

was fully raised the building of the institu- tion was begun. It was opened for the re- ception of students May 1, 1792, amid much ceremony, a procession, an oration (by Abra- ham Skinner), the singing of psalms and the chanting of an ode which had been written for the occasion by the Rev. George Faitoute. The festivities concluded with a dinner and on the viands being disposed of there was an outpouring of oratory in connection with toasts and sentiments. The first principal was the Rev. Maltby Gelston, and it was probably according to his ideas that the school curriculum was laid out. The Bible was the subject of daily reading. In Latin the text- books used included Ruddiman's "Rudi- ments" or Holmes' or Ross' Grammar, "Col- loquia Corderii," Nepos, Aesop, Cæsar, Virgil, one of Cicero's Orations, and Horace, while the Greek students toiled through Moore's Grammar, the New Testament, Lucien's "Dialogues," "Longinus" and selections from Homer's "Iliad." Blair's "Belles Lettres" was the text-book in the rhetoric class, and the other text-books included Stone's "Eu- clid," Martin's "Trigonometry," Warden's "Mathematics" and Guthrie's or Salmon's "Geography." These books will give an idea of the scope of the academy and the high plane at which it aimed much better than any amount of description. The institution does not seem to have become the success its friends had anticipated : possibly the aim was too high and the cost too great for the times. At all events it was not until L. E. A. Eigen- brodt, LL. D., a man of many rare accom- plishments, became principal in 1797, that the institution began to attract students from far and near and that the influence of the acad- emy became commensurate with its original purpose. Eigenbrodt continued in the prin- cipalship until his death, in 1828, and during that period of over thirty years its record is a most brilliant one. Encouraged by this suc- cess, the trustees in 1817 established a female branch of the academy and engaged as teach-

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A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 44

Author: Ross, Peter. cn Publication date: 1902 Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1188

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188