Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations, Part 152

Author: Howell, George Rogers, 1833-1899; Tenney, Jonathan, 1817-1888
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1452

USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations > Part 152

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The first course of lectures was delivered in the Exchange Building, on the site now occupied by the Federal Building on the corner of State street and Broadway, commencing the first of December, 1881, and continuing sixteen weeks. The two following years the lectures were delivered in the Cooper Building on the corner of State and Green street, and continued for the same length of time.

In 1854, the south wing of the Medical College, now Alumni Hall, was erected for the law school, and the course was extended to two terms of twelve weeks each. This arrangement continued until 1880, when a two years' course was adopted. Now, to entitle a student to graduate with the degree of LL. B., he must have attended two years at the school, or one year of three full terms, preceded or supplemented by a year of approved legal study outside.

The exercises of the school consist of about three hundred and fifty lectures during the year; a week- ly oral examination; two Moot Courts each week during most of the time; a written examination at the close of each term; and every candidate for graduation is required to read an original thesis upon some legal topic before the Dean, or some

other member of the Faculty, and the school prior to the close of the course.

On the accession of Profesor Smith, it was evident to him that the building in the Medical College, where lectures had been delivered for a quarter of a century, was no longer suitable nor adequate to the requirement of the school, and a new site was found in the Universalist Church on the north side of State street, above Swan, to which the school was removed, and where it still remains. This building, through the liberality of Thomas W. Ol- cott, Esq., President of the Board of Trustees, was converted into a pleasant and very convenient building for school purposes. It was dedicated to its new use on the evening of March 10, 1879, when addresses were made by Hon. Amasa J. Parker, LL. D., Hon. Samuel Handl, Charles E. Smith, Esq., then editor of the Albany Evening Journal, and Professor Smith.

The first class that attended the law school in 1851, but graduated only seven in 1853, namely Edwin E. Bronk, Charles A. Fowler, Worthington Frothingham, Willard P. Gambell, John C. Mc- Clure, Edward Wade and George Walford, con- tained twenty-three members; in 1854 was fifty members; in 1855-56, eighty-five; 1857-58, one hundred and eight; in 1859-60, one hundred and twenty-nine. These statistics are taken from a his- torical sketch, published in " The Concordiensis," for December, 1883, and probably include all the students in attendance, many of whom did not receive diplomas.

The official catalogue shows, of actual graduates, in 1860-61, ninety; in 1861-62, fifty-seven; and in 1862-63, fifty-nine.

At the close of the war, the classes were larger than ever before, one class numbering one hundred and fifty members. At one time every rank in the army, from Private up to Brigadier-General, was represented among the students. For the last few years the classes are smaller than formerly, which is attributed to the great increase in the number of law schools throughout the country.

The Almuni Association was organized in 1883 under favorable anspices, which has awakened new interest in the school among the numerous gradu- ates scattered throughout the land.

The writer entered the law school in the fall of 1860. At that time the three original Professors were there. Most of the instruction was given by Professor Dean,and all the routine work of the school fell to him, as well as the conduct of the Moot Courts, which were then, and are still, a part of the school system. We had then, the Kent Club, which still survives, after all the changes of nearly thirty years ago, when it was first organized, the Mans- field Club, and the Associated Congress, both of which are now defunct. It was during our time that Judge Harris was elected to the United States Senate.

In the following spring, at the outbreak of the Rebellion, a drill company of the students was organized under the Captaincy of William P. Pren- tice. Many of the members afterwards joined the army.

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HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF ALBANY.

No record is found of any earlier clubs than those above named, but a year or two later we find mention of the Webster Club; and in 1872 of the University Court, Edwards, Allen, and 290 Clubs; University Lyceum, Literary Association, and Associated Congress. The Kent Club is not men- tioned in this list, although it was subsequently revived, or else another bearing the same name, which stands on the present list, along with the Learned, the Smith Debating, the McCall Real Es- tate, the Edwards Moot Court, and the Sickles Moot Court Clubs.

The present attendance is about fifty students, and the Faculty consists of Learned, Smith, Presi- dent Potter, Hale, McCall, Spoor, Sickles, Brown and Moak.

It is considered one of the best law schools in the country.

DUDLEY OBSERVATORY.

The Dudley Observatory is located in the north- ern part of the city, near the line of the Central Railroad. The grounds on which it is placed are the highest in Albany, and are 200 feet above mean tide. They are about eight acres in extent, and are planted with trees and shrubbery. The buildings consist of the Astronomical, the Meteorological and the Physical Observatories, and a large dwelling- house, the official residence of the director. The Astronomical Observatory is a handsome structure of brick and freestone, in the general form of a cross,

DUDLEY OBSERVATORY.

80 by 70 feet. It is surmounted by a large revolv- ing turret, which contains the great equatorial re- fractor of 13-inches aperture, and 15-feet focal length. In the west wing of the Observatory is a large and excellent transit instrument, which is among the latest productions of the celebrated firm of Pistor & Martins, of Berlin. In the east wing is the great Olcott meridian circle, one of the largest and finest of its class. This instrument is also the work of Pistor & Martins. Its optical qualities are not exceeded by any similar instrument in the world. The object-glass is eight inches in diam- eter, and the telescope is about ten feet in length. The mounting of this instrument is specially massive and costly. Its principal feature consists in three enormous monoliths of limestone, of which one, weighing several tons, forms the cap-stone of the main pier, while the other two, weighing each nearly eight tons, rest upright upon this and serve as the direct supports of the instrument. In the same room is a variety of delicate and costly appa- ratus auxiliary to the principal instrument, which is in constant use for the most refined operations of astronomy, and employs the chief activities of the observing corps. Among other remarkable instru- ments belonging to the Observatory are the Sheutz tabulating engine, the Clark comet-seeker, the disk and printing chronographs, astronomical clocks, self-recording meteorological instruments, etc. The

Observatory also possesses an astronomical library of about 2,000 volumes, besides numerous pam- phlets and charts.

This institution was founded by the munificence of Mrs. Blandina Dudley, widow of the late Hon. Charles E. Dudley, and leading citizens of Albany. The act of incorporation was secured in 1852. The Observatory building was formally dedicated to as- tronomy in August, 1856, under the auspices of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (which that year held its annual session in this city), and in the presence of many distin- guished men of science from abroad. Geological Hall had been opened on the previous day. The address commemorating the inauguration of the Dudley Observatory was delivered in the Academy Park by Edward Everett, and has since become celebrated as a fine specimen of American oratory. Previous to the delivery of the address, an addi- tional gift of $50,000 to the Observatory was unex- pectedly announced from Mrs. Dudley, whereupon Professor Agassiz, who was seated on the platform, arose, and, delightedly swinging his hat, proposed, in trumpet tones: "Three cheers for Mrs. Dud- ley !" It is needless to say that the audience was electrified, and warmly responded to the summons.

The total donations to the Observatory up to the present time exceed $200,000. Of this sum, Mrs. Dudley gave $105, 000. More than $100,000 have

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SCHOOLS AND OTHER LITERARY INSTITUTIONS.

been expended in buildings and equipment, and about $100,000 is safely invested as a permanent fund for the support of the institution.

Since 1878, the astronomical operations of the Observatory have experienced a new impulse, in the zone work, which has been undertaken in co- operation with European observatories, under the general direction of the International Astronomical Society. In aid of this enterprise, considerable do- nations have been made by citizens of Albany and others.

From the normal clock of the Observatory, stand- ard time is furnished to the various railroad and telegraph offices in this vicinity. At 9 A. M. and 9 P. M. the fire bells of the city are struck in coinci- dence with a signal from the Observatory clock, by the Fire Alarm Telegraph Service. At noon each day, the standard time of the Observatory is trans- mitted over the lines of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's system of railroads, and also over some of the Western Union telegraph lines. There is also a system of clocks controlled electrically from the Observatory.

Among the distinguished astronomers who have been in charge of this Observatory are Dr. B. A. Gould, now Chief Astronomer of the Argentine Confederation, South America; Professor O. M. Mitchel, who afterwards died in 1862, Major-Gen- eral of a corps U. S. Volunteers; and Dr. Brunnow, since Astronomer-Royal of Ireland. The present Astronomer and Director is Professor Lewis Boss, a graduate of Dartmouth College. The manage- ment of the Observatory is intrusted to a board of sixteen Trustees. The Observatory is opened Tues- day evenings, when visitors are admitted in limited numbers.

THE ALBANY ACADEMY.

In the summer of 1780, the question of erecting an Academy in the city occupied much of the at- tention of the Common Council, and in September of that year the matter had proceeded so far that proposals were accepted by George W. Merchant, of Philadelphia, to take charge of the same in school-rooms which had been fitted up for the

ALBANY ACADEMY.

Academy until more convenient buildings could be erected. These school-rooms were in the house occupied by Mr. Ryckman.

As early as 1804, the citizens of Albany held a meeting to devise ways and means to establish an Academy, but without immediate results. Again in 1806 the agitation was renewed, only to be again abandoned or deferred. At last in November, 1812, notwithstanding the war with England, then just commencing, under the auspices of Philip S. Van Rensselaer, then Mayor of the city, the movement was resumed, and January 18, 1813, the Common Council called a meeting of citizens to be held at the Capitol on January 25th. It also appropriated the old jail, on the south side of State street, just below Eagle street, now the site of Van Vechten Hall,

then valued at $ 15,000; also about $5, 000 of other property.

The institution was incorporated March 4, 1813, by the Regents of the University. The first Board of Trustees was composed of Stephen Van Rensselaer, John Lansing, Archibald Mcintyre, Smith Thomp- son, Abraham Van Vechten, John V. Henry, Henry Walton, Rev. Wm. Niell, Rev. John M. Bradford, Rev. John McDonald, Rev. Timothy Clowes, Rev. John McJimpsey, Rev. Frederic G. Meyer, Rev. Samuel Merwin, and the Mayor and Recorder of Albany, ex officio. The Trustees held their first meeting March 23, 1813.

The Common Council donated the site where the Academy building now stands, between Elk street and the Capitol Park. They also appropriated

684

HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF ALBANY.

funds for the building, and further grants were made by the Regents of the University and by private citizens.

On July 29, 1815, the corner-stone was laid, and the building was erected within the two following years at a cost of $90,000. Some of the inside work however was not finished till many years later. It is a handsome freestone structure, consisting of a main building 70 by 80 feet, with wings on each end 30 by 45 feet; with a cupola surmounting the central portion of the main building.

Meanwhile the school opened temporarily, in a large wooden building owned by Kilian Van Rens- selaer, on the southeast corner of State and Lodge streets. Here on the 11th of September, 1815, the first session was held, under the presidency of Ben- jamin Allen, LL. D., then recently from Cam- bridge, and previously from Union College. The Principal and Rev. Joseph Shaw, Professor of Languages, together with Trustees Niell, Beck and Sedgwick, welcomed the first students to the Acad- emy. There were about eighty enrolled that year. The Faculty was soon afterwards augmented by the accession of Moses Chapin, afterwards Judge Chapin, of Rochester, as tutor.

In August, 1817, Theodoric Romeyn Beck, M. D., LL.D., was appointed principal, and con- tinued to hold that office till 1848, with the excep- tion of the period from 1841 to 1844, when Rev. Andrew Shiland acted as Principal. At the accession of Dr. Beck, the present building was occupied, in September, 1817. It was during Dr. Beck's time that the events occured which have made the Al- bany Academy world-renowned. He was born at Schenectady in 1791; graduated at Union College in 1807; and, at the time of his accession to the principalship, he was a practicing physician in Al- bany. He combined extensive erudition with a rare faculty as an educator. His especial delight was in chemical, geological and meteorological studies, and he organized courses of lectures on chemistry which were largely attended by citizens as well as students. He and his brother, John B., published the work on " Medical Jurisprudence," which has ever since been a standard authority, and is still referred to, notwithstanding the great ad- vance in science during the generation that has passed since its publication. He also took great interest in the State Library, and contributed largely by his efforts in building it up to its present stage of usefulness. Another brother, Lewis C. Beck, was for a time Professor of Chemistry, and author of a text-book of that science, and of several other works.

But it was reserved for Joseph Henry, LL. D., Pro- fessor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy from 1826 to 1832, to make within the historic walls a discovery of more profound significance and far- reaching results than almost any other-that of the possibility of conducting the electric curent through long distances, and transmitting signals which could be understood by a mere touch of the key at the other, perhaps distant, end of a wire. In 1830, and subsequent years, he coiled in an upper room of the Academy a mile or more of wire, and for the first time transmitted through it those electric sig-

nals which have since become so well known wherever the electric telegraph extends; and where does it not ? Professor Henry afterwards organized the Smithsonian Institution at Washington.

. Rev. Peter Bullions, D. D., was Professor of Latin and Greek from 1824 to 1848. He published a series of Latin and Greek text-books which were extensively used, and have passed through numerous editions, being still preferred by many educators to any other. His style is clear and simple, and easy to grasp and remember. He adopted the continental system of pronouncing Latin.

In 1823, and for several years subsequently, four boys each year were promoted from the Lancas- terian school and educated in the Academy.

Since 1836, when H. W. Delavan died, and left by will $2,000 to the Academy, the income of this sum has been used to educate five poor boys from year to year, no one receiving the benefit of the fund for a longer period than two years. The in- come now suffices only to educate one or two boys. Some of the most brilliant of the Academy Alumni have been beneficiaries of this fund.

The medal system too, dates from the Beck regime. In 1831, William Caldwell gave $100, the income of which was to be devoted each year to the purchase of a medal for the student of four years' standing who has made the greatest profi- ciency in mathematics. The first recipient was William Austin. In 1832, the record says " no public examination in consequence of the preva- lence of the cholera." We thus learn that the origi- nal design was to determine the question of pro- ficiency by examination; but this method had fallen into disuse at the time the writer first became an academician, in 1854, and the four medals that were thereafter distributed were given without any explanation of the' method, and were gen- erally supposed to be awarded in conformity with the notion of the Principal, except the Beck medal for literary essay, which was awarded by a committee. The original method of examination has now been restored, and the number and variety of awards at the annual exercises is bewilderingly great. Competition for the earlier medals was limited to students who had been for three or four years in attendance, and as students used to publish burlesque programmes, this was spoken of in these burlesques as a distribution of medals for long at- tendance.

From the time of the first occupancy ot the Academy building, the Albany Institute has had a room there, where meetings are held twice a month, and the Institute library is kept.

The later Principals have been Rev. William H. Campbell, 1848-51; George H. Cook, A. M , 1851-53; Rev. William A. Miller, A. M., 1853- 56; David Murray, Ph. D., LL. D., 1856-63; James W. Mason, A. M., 1863-68; Rev. Abel Wood, 1869-70; Merrill E. Gates, Ph. D., LL. D., 1870-82.

In 1856, the merit roll system of marks and grading was adopted, and has continued ever since.

For a long time prior to 1858, the records show no graduating class, and but very rarely a diploma conferred. In that year a class of six was gradu-

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SCHOOLS AND OTHER LITERARY INSTITUTIONS.

ated, and from that time on, graduating classes have been the order of the Academy. This first class, given in the order of the catalogue, which is a transcript from the merit roll, consisted of Will- iam H. Hale, Charles E. Smith, Edward S. Lawson, Thomas M. Gaffney, Thaddeus R. White, and Thomas S. Willes.

In the spring of 1862, the Academy was con- verted into a military school, with cadet uniform and drill.

A semi-centennial celebration was held at Tweddle Hall, June 26, 1863, which was presided over by Peter Gansevoort, for fifty-one years a Trustee, and for twenty-one years President of the Board of Trustees. Prayer was offered by Rev. Dr. Isaac Ferris, Chancellor of the University of New York, formerly a Tutor in the Academy. Valu- able historical addresses were made by Orlando Meads, Esq., and Alexander W. Bradford, LL. D., both former students. A commemorative volume was also published, containing a list of all former students, believed to be complete, except for the years 1839-47, in which there is some confusion of the records.

The Academy was formerly inclosed by a high iron fence, which has within a few years been re- moved, and the Park neatly laid out in conformity with the modern ideas of landscape gardening.

Many historic associations cluster around this Park. It was here, in August, 1856, under the auspices of the American Association for the Ad- vancement of Science, that the Dudley Observatory was dedicated, with the immortal address by Ed- ward Everett. Here, too, in 1864, was held the Sanitary Fair for the benefit of the Union army.

Between six and seven thousand students have at one time or another been enrolled on the lists of the Academy. Its instructors have numbered over one hundred and thirty, not counting repeated names. Many, both teachers and pupils, have be- come eminent.

From the original complement of two, the Faculty has increased in number to fourteen, under the direction of James M. Cassety, Ph. D., the present Principal, who entered into the office in 1882. The number of students on the catalogue of 1884 was 322, said to be the largest attendance in the history of the institution.

A notable circumstance is the drafts which Rutgers College has made upon the Principals, she having called Campbell and Gates to the pres- idency, and Cook and Murray to professorships. Principals Beck and Murray have been Secre- taries to the Regents of the University of the State of New York, and Presidents of the Albany Insti- tute.

The hours of instruction have always been, as now, from nine o'clock until two.

There were no literary societies until September 28, 1849, when Principal Campbell called a meet- ing of some of the older boys, and a few who had but recently left the Academy, and suggested to them the desirability of organizing a society. The students thus assembled, thirty-two in number, formed the Alpha Sigma society, taking their name

from the Greek letters which form the initials of the words Anthropoi Sophoi, wise people. This society is said, however, to have had some other motto with the same initials. Possibly as the lads matured they concluded to adopt the better Greek of Andres Sophoi, wise men. The first president was John T. McKnight; one of the presidents subsequently was John E. McElroy. To this society was entrusted the management of the Academy's semi- centennial. Very few new members were ever elected, and the membership dwindled to about sixteen in 1871, when the last meeting of which there is any record was held on December 26th, and William Headlam was elected president. Since these lines were written, on January 8, 1885, the society reconvened.

The Phi Mu Alpha (Phren Metron Andros) was founded November 26, 1851, and its first meeting held December 5th of the same year. Its first presi- dent was J. Campbell Boyd. The last meeting re- corded was held in March, 1855, and the last president was William Lansing. In those days, the society's desk, with the Greek letters inscribed on it, stood in the school-room, and proved a per- plexing mystery to the boys who were not initiated.

The Delta Sigma Gamma (Demokratikos Sullogos Grammatos) originated about 1853 or 1854, and continued to meet regularly till about 1860.

The longest lived society in connection with the Academy was organized December 11, 1857, and continues to the present day. As a name for it, Nu Lambda Epsilon (Neanion Logike Ekklesia), Youth's Debating Society, was adopted. A few years later this was changed to the Beck Literary Society, and the days of the Greek letter societies were numbered. The first president was William H. Fassett, another name which has become celebrated by the renown of the lady whom he afterwards married, who ac- quired great celebrity as a contralto singer. This society was developed out of a prior organization called the Young American Assembly, which used to co-operate with the Young American Senate till the latter broke up and left the Assembly to become a literary instead of a political union. Among the leading members of the Young American Senate should be named its first president, Charles E. Smith, who there learned the elements of that political skill which in later life made him the framer of numerous political platforms at the Con- ventions of the Republican party.

The Nu Lambda Epsilon, or Beck Literary So- ciety, was the only society in the Academy for nearly a quarter of a century-not reckoning the Alpha Sigma, whose members were no longer school- boys-till the Gates Literary Society was founded September 24, 1883, with Edmund C. Knicker- bocker as first president, and it now divides with the elder organization the honors of the Academy.

ALBANY FEMALE ACADEMY.

A school for the higher education of Albany girls was started in this city, mainly through the efforts of Ebenezer Foot, a prominent lawyer of his day. It was opened on May 21, 1814, in

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HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF ALBANY.

a one-story building on Montgomery street, and known as Union School. It was incorporated, under the title of the Albany Female Academy,

Female Academy.

February 16, 1821. The first Board of Trus- tees were James Kent, John Chester, Joseph Russell, John V. Henry, Asa H. Center, Gideon Hawley, William Fowler, Teunis Van Vechten and Peter Boyd, who in the same year built a school building, in the rear of the Delavan House, at a cost of $3,000, capable of accommodating 120 pupils. The growth of the institution more than met the expectation of its early friends. In 1833, the school building was again outgrown by the increasing number of its pupils, when the present edifice on North Pearl street was begun. It was fin- ished in 1834 at a cost of $30,000, and opened May 12, 1834. Its architecture was planned by Jonathan Lyman, and was pleasing in effect and well adapt- ed to its nses. The front faces the east, and is ornamented with a beautiful hexa-style portico of the Ionic order. The proportions of the columns, capitals, bases and entablature are taken from the temple on the Ilissus, the most beautiful example of the Ionic among the remains of antiquity.

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Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations, Part 152

Author: Howell, George Rogers, 1833-1899; Tenney, Jonathan, 1817-1888 Publication date: 1886 Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co. Number of Pages: 1452

Author: Howell, George Rogers, 1833-1899; Tenney, Jonathan, 1817-1888
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1452