Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations, Part 64

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 64

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Gov. Montgomerie had the largest private library in the province of New York previous to the Revo- lution. It numbered 1, 341 volumes. Judge Smith, the historian, had a library of about 1, 000 volumes, including his law books. The first law library we hear of was that of Broughton, Attorney-General, 1701 to 1705, which contained only 36 volumes. In 1730, Dr. Millington, of England, bequeathed a thousand volumes to the "Society for the Propa- gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," which was sent to New York City, and kept in the old City Hall, for the use of the clergy and gentlemen of New York, and the neighboring governments of Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, upon giving security to return them. In 1754, 700 vol- umes of well-selected books were purchased by subscription, for the commencement of a public library, which was the origin of the New York Society Library. The libraries of our own city and county, and of more recent times, will receive at- tention later.

According to Judge Campbell, in his Annals of Tryon County, Rev. Samuel Dunlop, of the Scotch- Irish race, educated at Edinburgh, came to Cherry Valley, as pastor of the Presbyterian Church there, in 1741. He opened a school for the instruction of boys in the classical and other branches of higher education, which continued for many years. It was the first school of this grade west of Albany. His boys were received into his house and made a part of his family. They came from Albany, Sche- nectady and other towns along the Mohawk and Hudson. Some of them became conspicuous dur- ing the trying times of the Revolution.

There were but few academies in this State where higher and classical studies were pursued before the nineteenth century dawned. The boys went to the New Rochelle School for French and business training. In Kingston, Kinderhook and Schenec- tady they pursued studies preparatory to college.

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EDUCATION.

Academies were established in various parts of the State soon after the Revolution, among which were Dutchess County, Canandaigua, Erasmus Hall, East Hampton, Farmer's Hall, Jownstown, Lan- singburg, Montgomery, Oxford, Union Hall and Washington, furnishing increased facilities for higher instruction.

Albany Academy, for boys, was incorporated in 1813, and has always held a high rank and been a great force in the educational movements in this county. A more detailed history will appear in the City of Albany.

Rensselaerville Academy, now taught by Prof. B. F. Eaton and wife, has long been in operation, has taught a teachers' class for many years, and has been well attended and done good work in the southwest part of our county, reflecting the intelligence and good sense of its Yankee founders.

Knoxville Academy has done much to promote intelligence in the Town of Knox and vicinity. During the late war of rebellion eleven had entered, from among its students, into the military service for the Union.

Coeymans Academy, established in 1858, pros- pered under the Misses Brace and Thomas McKee. There has been, during these last eighty years, select schools and various institutions for educating the young in New Scotland, Watervliet and other towns in the county, useful, no doubt, but brief in dura- tion.

After the conquest of New Netherlands by the English, no encouragement was given to the sub- ject of education by the Colonial Government. For almost a century " there was no institution in the province where an academic education could be acquired."

The historian, Chief-Justice Smith, referring to this matter, while making allusion to the action of the Legislature of the State in 1746, authorizing the raising of {2,250, by lottery, for founding a college, says: "To the disgrace of our first planters, who beyond comparison surpassed their eastern neighbors in opulence, Mr. DeLancey, a graduate of the University of Cambridge, England, and Mr. Smith were for many years the only academics in this province except such as were in holy orders." Although about one hundred and twenty years had passed since the Dutch had commenced the settle- ment of New Amsterdam, and about eighty years since it came under the English Crown, the above lottery law was the first legislative movement toward founding a college in the present territory of New York State.

Harvard, Yale, William and Mary and other early American colleges became the first nursing mothers of some of the boys of the province of New York. A careful examination of general catalogues gives us the names of those who were graduates of American colleges, natives or residents of New York, prior to the year 1800. We may have omitted some few; but the list at best indicates the great difference in favor of New England in the zeal for higher education in those years. Some of these graduates were New Englanders, who came to New York after graduation; some less known to fame are, no doubt, omitted.

The graduates from Harvard were Benjamin Pratt, 1737; Samuel Auchmuty, 1742; John Van Horne, 1744; Daniel Treadwell, 1754; Philip Livingston, 1755; Peter Livingston, 1757; Rufus King, 1777; John Jeremiah Van Rensselaer and Stephen Van Rensselaer, 1782; Ambrose Spencer, 1783; John Thornton Kirkland, 1789.

From Yale, Samuel Johnson, 1714; William Smith, 1719; Peter Van Brugh Livingston, 1731; John Livingston, 1733; Henry Barclay, 1734; Benjamin Nicoll and William Nicoll, 1734; Jacob Cuyler and Philip Livingston, 1737; William Liv- ingston, 1741; Samuel Buel, 1741; Hendrick Hans Hansen and William Peartree Smith, 1742; William S. Johnson, Caleb Smith and Benjamin Woolsey, 1744; John Morin Scott, 1746; Richard Morris, 1748; Gideon Hawley, 1749; Thomas Jones, 1750; Ezra L'Hommedieu, 1754; John Sloss Hobart, 1757; John H. Livingston, 1762; Stephen Van Rensselaer, 1760; John De Peyster Douw, 1777; James Kent, 1781; Francis Blood- good, 1787; John Woodworth, 1788; Samuel A. Foot, 1797.

From Princeton, John Mckesson, 1753; Peter R. Livingston, Philip P. Livingston and Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, 1758; Peter V. B. Livingston, 1756; Samuel Kirkland, 1765; Aaron Burr, William Linn and William S. Livingston, 1772; Morgan Lewis and John Blair Smith, 1773; Henry B. Livingston, 1774; Henry P. Livingston, 1776; Edward Livingston, 1781; Derrick Ten Eyck, 1782; Nathaniel Lawrence and Jacob Radcliff, 1783; Abraham Ten Broeck and Peter R. Living- ston, 1784; John V. Henry, 1785; Maturin Liv- ingston and Peter William Livingston, 1786; Smith Thompson, 1788; Jacob Ten Eyck, 1792; John H. Hobart, 1793; Abraham Ten Eyck, 1795.

From Rutgers, Simeon DeWitt, 1776; Pierre Van Cortlandt, 1783.

From Kings, now Columbia, Philip Van Cortlandt, 1758; Philip Livingston, 1760; John Jay, 1764; Eg-

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HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF ALBANY.

bert Benson and Robert R. Livingston, 1765; Henry Rutgers and John Watts, 1767; Benjamin Moore, Gouverneur Morris, John Stevens, Gulian Verplanck and Peter Van Schaick, 1768; Alexander Hamilton, 1774; DeWitt Clinton, 1786; John W. Yates, 1787; Samuel Jones, 1790; Alexander Proudfit, 1792; John Forbes, 1794; Daniel D. Tompkins, John B. Romeyn, Rensselaer Westerlo, 1795, and others less known to the public. Taken all in all, the early sons of these early colleges were a Titanian progeny; sons of thunder born in tempestuous times and for great emergencies.

The intelligent student of local history will notice that a good proportion of these graduates were natives of Albany County, or were identified with it as their home or by their distinguished public careers while residents.

The first graduating class of King's College was in 1758, and numbered seven. From 1776 to 1786 there were no graduates, the college buildings having been taken for military purposes. This in- stitution, the first of the kind in the State, has produced many patriots, statesmen, divines and scholars who have reflected honor on the college and given useful lives to the State. Its first medical class graduated in 1769. In 1797, it gave Albany Dr. William Bay. It early contributed to rendering the science and practice of medicine more respectable than it had hitherto been.

But sectarian feeling, as well as the all-absorbing struggle for freedom at that period, did much to retard the early growth of the college. The Episco- pal Church had the political power under the Royal Government; but the Dutch Reformed and Presby- terian Churches were a power among the masses, and had much wealth and influence. There was great jealousy of a church establishment, especially of a church that had a bishop at its head. William Livingston led the opposition, but not as against all religion. In that day, the divorce between learning and religion was not thought of. The State had authorized a lottery, in 1746, which realized about £3,500. This was to go for founding a college. The opposition to the charter was virulent, and based on the principle that it ought not to be controlled by any one sect, as its funds were raised under State law for a non-sectarian college.

Something of the character of the times is shown by the remark made by Rev. Dr. Johnson, President of the College, in 1762, that "it is a great pity, when patents are granted, as they often are, for large tracts of land, no provision is made for religion or schools."

King's College, now and since 1784 Columbia, was founded in 1754, after the long colonial days of popular ignorance and official tyranny. Harvard dates its beginning in 1638, and Yale in 1701. It was not lack of wealth or power that kept home facilities for a higher education from the sons of New York. New Jersey had its Presbyterian Prince- ton before the Episcopal King's of New York, and its Dutch Reformed Queen's, now Rutgers, soon after. And even Dartmouth, which came near raising its voice in Albany County, appeared among the rocky hills of New Hampshire, "vox clamantis in deserto," as early as 1769.

The Regents of the University came in 1784; re- organized in 1787; and have ever since been the active, discreet and earnest guardians of academic, collegiate and professional learning all over the State, granting charters to academies and other schools, providing funds, encouraging sound in- struction, and diffusing in various ways that "intelligence" which, as Jefferson says, "is the life of liberty." Their office is kept in Albany and all their meetings are held here.

Union College has been an important educa- tional factor in Albany County as well as in Schenec- tady, for about ninety years past. Its history ap- pears in the latter county, because it is located there. It appears that a project giving it a start as Clinton College originated in 1779. One motive is declared to have been to educate "men of learning to fill the several offices of Church and State." Among these earliest and earnest movers to establish a college in what was then Albany County were Rev. Eilardus Westerlo, Gen. Philip Schuyler and other prominent citizens of Albany. When it went into operation in 1795, seven of its first trustees were Robert Yates, Abraham Yates, Jr., Abraham Ten Broeck, Goldsbrow Banyar, John V. Henry, George Merchant, Stephen Van Rensselaer and Joseph C. Yates, all of Albany.

Eliphalet Nott graduated at Brown in 1793, and William L. Marcy twelve years later. Dr. Nott came to Cherry Valley as teacher and preacher, and thence to Albany, in 1798, as pastor of the First Presby- terian Church. From this church he went forth as President of Union College in 1804, and, for 62 years, was distinguished as a skillful manager of boys. The influence of this college upon the cause of learning in Albany County cannot be over-esti- mated. Some of its most talented and useful sons and citizens have been educated among its nearly 7,000 graduates. Albany Medical School, Albany Law School and Dudley Observatory, with Union College, now constitute Union University.

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EDUCATION.

The law and medical schools of Albany, for many years important agencies in educating our sons, are specially mentioned in another part of our work. So, also, is the Lancasterian School, and other important schools, both public and private, that have existed in this century, or do now exist, in our capital city.

But not all the parents of Albany boys believed in a collegiate education. The following anecdote comes to us from an old Albany merchant, as illus- trative of the feelings of a type of utilitarian men who are not all dead yet. Our Dutch citizen was a man of hoarded wealth, who had one only son, named Dirck. He was advised to give him an education. After some thinking, he gravely re- plied :

" If I educate Dirck in college, and he dies, the money I spend on him is lost."

Dirck did not go to college. He never earned any money, but was clothed and fed and sheltered by the savings of his ancestors. He was a wild boy; he drank freely and kept bad company. He died in the gutter one night, after a drunken carousal, without the expense of a college education.

It is evident, then, that previous to the Revolu- tionary war no general system of education was established. It was confined chiefly to the wealthy classes. The importance of schools for all the people had not been recognized in New York. All schools that were in operation were of a private character, or were incorporated by special legisla- tion. Often favored children received instruction from the parish clergyman, or from some young student who became a sort of family tutor while pursuing his own studies. Rarely, some father, elder brother or other relative gave direction and stimulus to some bright mind which had the taste, strength of mind and energy to acquire valu- able and systematic knowledge and discipline without school or schoolmasters.

In all its years of feudal power and inherited wealth, years of control by a rich company of mer -. chants or by royal governors who grew rich by selfish rapacity, there were no free schools for the people, reckoning down to the close of the Revo- lutionary war, and all along the rich valley of the ever-trading IIudson from the sea to the Mohawk Flats.

Consequently, New York had no Benjamin Franklin, plebeian born and educated in the free schools of Boston.

No, nor any Samuel and John Adams, and many others of their spirit, whose first lessons were taken

in the intelligent homes and free colleges of the common people.

But this spirit of liberty could not be confined. It came to New York, especially to the city, from New England, and inspired the Sons of Liberty to resist oppression and establish freedom.

AFTER THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.

The manorial lands of this county, after the Revolution, were rapidly taken up by industrious farmers, and the shops in the villages and the mills along the streams were occupied by busy mechanics. No provision had been made by the patroon for the schooling of the children. Among the early settlers upon the farms all over the county were not only the frugal Hollander, but the peace-loving Hugue- not, the hardy Scot and the earnest German. Nor was the New Englander. absent. Indeed, he was "all about," and couldn't be content until his chil- dren could have a school.

The Yankee schoolmaster was on hand, and a spare room of the farm-house of some well-to-do farmer was fitted up for a school a part of the year. The school was started by a voluntary agreement to pay so much for each pupil's schooling. Fuel was cheap and readily contributed by the farmers ; the " master" or older pupils attended to building the fires and cleaning the school-room. The teacher "boarded around." The schools were modeled upon the plan of the country schools in the "Eastern States," from which most of the teachers and many of the patrons came.

So matters went on for many years. The boys and girls were taught spelling, reading and writing, some arithmetic, and many other useful things. Good manners were not left out. They were waked up; they were inquisitive; many of them read the weekly paper, the catechism, the New Testament, and various books that belonged in families, and were loaned to any one who would read them.

Schools of to-day, many of them, are imperfect enough in all conscience ; but just consider them as they were, with very few exceptions, at the be- ginning of the present century, and even later.

The school-houses, if any, were usually located in one of the most God-forsaken spots that could be found, where white beans and buckwheat would not grow ; on some bleak hill or on some arid or swampy place, surrounded by the drifting snows of winter or the sands and miasma of summer. If in a city, the location selected must be in some by- place, where the land was cheapest, where business was dullest and dirtiest, where the best families

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HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF ALBANY.

would not be disturbed by the sight of the uncouth garb and uncultivated noise of free-school children. The rooms and surroundings were lacking in every element of health, comfort or decency. Temperature uneven, ventilation entirely disregarded, light bad for eyes, seats and desks bad for bones, muscles and lungs, -everything was provocative of weari- ness, disease, mischief, dullness and bad morals.

The schoolmasters were usually more noted for hate than love, for brutal severity and repulsive manners than for that magic, winning power that rules without ruining children. Few taught be- cause they loved instruction or humanity. They stepped into some other vocation at any early op- portunity. Money, learning, life, church and state have lost unmeasured values from such school- houses and school-keepers !

Later, when summer schools began to be taught by females, many might have said, as did one hon- est "schoolma'am," "'tis little they pays me, and little I teaches 'em." They were generally worthy dames, who taught their pupils good manners ; to rise and stand when the minister and school officer visited the school ; the girls to make a low courtesy, and the boys to take off their hats and make a bow to all strangers and others whom they met on the way to and from school, to perform the same reverential duty to the teacher as they entered the school-room door, and on making their exit. There was much of reading the stories of the Bible, and much of teaching maxims of piety and duty, with oral instruction in matters of simple, every- day knowledge.

Some of these worthy pioneers in the exercise of woman's rights and duties, were exceedingly lacking in scholastic knowledge. Some could write only their names, in ill-favored letters, and could teach only "easy reading," and in cypher- ing were limited to the simplest problems and tables in the fundamental rules. But they were women of common sense, good conscience and exemplary lives; and did much to help hard-work- ing mothers to take care of their children, and teach them obedience, order, neatness, and respect for superiors. Knitting, sewing, patchwork and lettering samplers were usually taught the girls in these "woman schools;" sometimes painting in water colors and fancy needle-work, especially in the private schools. The use of the rod was not confined to the schoolmasters.

Such were most of the schools of the county in the fifty years after the close of the war of the revolution.

At the first meeting of the State Legislature, after the adoption of the constitution, George Clinton, then Governor, in his address, remarked that "ne- glect of the education of youth is one of the evils consequent upon war."

Gov. George Clinton was evidently a friend of public schools for all the people, and used his official influence in their favor. At the opening of the legislative session of 1795, he says : "While it is evident that the general establishment and liberal endowment of academies are highly to be com- mended, and are attended with the most beneficial consequences, yet it cannot be denied that they are principally confined to the children of the opulent, and that a great portion of the commu- nity is excluded from their immediate advantages. The establishment of common schools throughout the State is happily calculated to remedy this incon- venience, and will therefore engage your early and decided consideration."

April 7, 1795, the State Legislature appropriated the sum of {20,000 annually for the term of five years, for encouraging and maintaining schools in the State. Of this sum, £1,590, or $3,975, was allotted to Albany County. This was regarded as a long stride toward a general free school system.

In 1813, Mr. Spafford, of Albany, author of the Gazetteer, thus expresses himself in regard to the schools of our State and County : "At present the modes of common school instruction in this State are liable to many objections. In this respect, we are considerably behind the New England States, who have reduced this branch of education to a system. But their method is rapidly gaining ground, and common schools have considerably increased in number and respectability within a few years ; and this amelioration is more percept- ible in the country than in populous towns, where our schools for the elements of a common educa- tion are not so good as in the country.

"The wealthy spare no expense in the education of their sons, principally at academies and colleges, though some continue the practice of former times, having private tutors in their families.

"The yeomanry and the ranks of middling wealth resort to day and boarding schools ; the most com- mon kind being the former, supported through the year or only in the winter, and too little attention is paid to the qualifications of instructors.

"The recent introduction of schools on the plan of the benevolent Lancaster promises very bene- ficial results to the poor in populous towns ; at present, these are confined to the cities of New York and Albany.

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Of female education, he remarks : "The rich spare no expense, and much time is spent in the frivolous accomplishments of a genteel education, to little purpose. Music and drawing, except in cases of decided propensity, are of little ornament and less utility, though they may amuse the idle." He then admits that they "afford elegant and agreeable diversion when cultivated with taste," and may " expand the mind formed for expansion."

Better facilities for the higher education of girls began to engage the attention of intelligent parents in Albany, early in this century. Private schools were started with varied success. The most im- portant enterprise of this kind was the Union School, so called, started by Ebenezer Foot, in Montgomery street, in 1814, from which grew the excellent and widely useful Albany Female Acad- emy, a history of which will be given in the history of education in the city of Albany. We mention it here only to say that its doors have always been open to girls residing outside the city at reason- able rates of tuition ; that it has usually had the best of instructors and a wise supervision ; that its course of study has favored the liberal and practi- cal branches, and that its influence upon female education in this county has been most benefi- cent.

In 1838, the distinguished English traveler, Buckingham, made a brief sojourn in Albany, and closely studied its institutions. In the Female Academy he says he found about 250 in attend- ance from the city and 140 from the country. The school instruction and management, then for about twenty years in charge of that eminent educator, Alonzo Crittenden, he found most admirable. He adds : "This experiment, which has now been continued for upward of twenty years, has proved abundantly what many have affected to disbelieve or doubt, that the female intellect is in no degree whatever inferior in its capacity to receive and re- tain instruction in the highest and most difficult branches of learning to the male ; that their powers of application and their zeal for informa- tion are, also, quite equal to that of the other sex ; and that such differences as have hitherto existed between the intellectual condition of male and female youths have been wholly owing to their be- ing subjected to different modes of education."

These sentiments, regarded as questionable sixty years ago, have been so firmly established by the observation of teachers and school officers that " experiment " is no longer called for, and " dis- belief and doubt" are no longer found, even among the oldest of the " old fogies " in education.

In Preston's Statistical Report of the county for the year 1820, we find enumerated in the county, 155 common schools, "exclusive of parts of schools adjoining other towns," to wit: in Albany, 25 ; Bethelehem, 25 ; Coeymans, 15 ; Westerlo, 16; Rensselaerville, 18 ; Berne, 30 ; Guilderland, II ; Watervliet, 12; also an academy of 150 students, Lancasterian school of 400 pupils, and a mechanic school, all in the city of Albany. The Albany Female Academy, although then in opera- tion, is not named. The same writer, John Preston, an old teacher of his day, residing in Westerlo, says : "Our country schools, and many in cities, at present are too tedious and too expensive in teaching children the elementary parts of sciences." He places a high estimate upon the now exploded Lancasterian system of school management, as "surpassing anything of the kind heretofore discovered."

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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 64

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