USA > New York > Delaware County > Delaware County, New York, history of the century, 1797-1897, centennial celebration, June 9 and 10, 1897 > Part 7
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In later years turnpike companies have sometimes been formed to keep special roads in repair, for which they were authorized to charge toll. As a temporary expedient this no doubt was an advantage, and the roads thus cared for have proved a great benefit to communities. But it is a great burdeu to the farmers, and they are in general bitterly opposed to having the roads which they almost daily travel interrupted by toll-gates. It is the duty of the county, and of the State to provide good roads for its citizens. There is no duty more important or pressing at the present day than this, and it is specially incumbent in a county like Delaware which is not easily accessible to the great markets.
When the Erie Canal was constructed and opened in 1825 a new era was begun for the prosperity of western and central New York. Even the counties along the Hudson and the sea-port of New York city were vastly enriched. To connect such a sea-port with the interior of a great Stato, and by means of inland lakes with the very heart of the continent, was one of the greatest feats of economic statemanship which the world had seen.
But it seemed a grievance to the counties distant from the line of the canal, -and it still seems a grievance, that they who enjoyed no benefit from it, have been and are still obliged to contribute to the millions which it has cost to construct, to enlarge and to repair. Delaware county, removed as she necessarily was from the line of
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Almeda Valley.
Meredith View.
At Shavert & 1
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the canal never received any direct benefit. She only profited from it in a general way by the building up of the great metropolis and the increase thereby of the demand for those products which she had for sale.
In common with the southern tier of counties across the State, Delaware county insisted with great urgency upon the construction of a railroad which should connect New York city with Lake Erie. Plans for building the N. Y. and Erie railroad were seriously discussed as early as 1825. Petitions for aid in the enterprise by the State were presented to the Legislature, and in compliance with these the Comptroller was authorized to loan to the company the sum of one million of dollars; one quarter of the sum when one hundred miles of the road had been completed, a second quarter when two hundred miles were completed, a third when three hun- dred, and the last when four hundred miles were finished. With this encouragement the stock of the road was rapidly subscribed for. Ground was broken for the beginning of the construction at Deposit in this county November 7, 1835. But the financial strin- geney throughout the country in 1836 and 1837 put an end for a time to the prosecution of the enterprise. But in 1838 the State again came to its aid by the grant of an additional loan of three million of dollars.
The physical difficulties of building a railroad through such rough and mountainous regions as the Delaware and Susquehanna valleys, were not at first fully realized. Twice the location of the track was changed, in order to avoid obstacles which had not been fully appreciated.
Unwisely the road was planned to have a broad guage of seven feet instead of the ordinary gange of four feet eight inches. This was in imitation of the great engineer Brunel who constructed the Great Western railway of England with a broad track, under the impression that all the competing and connecting lines woukd finally conform to the broad gange. But when the importance of running cars from all roads over the Erie, and in turn of being able
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to send the loaded cars of the Erie over the roads with which it: connected, it became an urgent necessity to change to the narrower and standard guage. The change was not made, however, until much later, and then only at a very considerable expense.
The Erie railroad only runs through a small part of Delaware county, following the Delaware river, entering from Sullivan county and leaving at Deposit. But even this inconsiderable contact was of infinite benefit to the county. Besides the aid it rendered to the towns immediately adjoining, many parts far to the east were much helped in having a better and easier communication opened up for them with the New York markets. Much of the travel which had before this sought an outlet eastward by long and mountainous routes to the Hudson river, now adopted this natural and easy route down the Delaware valley to Hancock. Many farm produets which under former circumstances were not worth send- ing to market now became valuable and merchantable. This was the first step towards bringing Delaware county out into the world.
The next step was the opening of the Albany and Susquehanna railroad. This line was organized in 1851, receiving State and local aid towards its construction. It was finished to Oneonta in 1865, to Unadilla and Sidney Plains in 1866, and to Binghamton in 1869. In 1870 it was leased to the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company for one hundred and fifty years, and has since been operated as a part of its system. Although the Albany and Sus- quehanna railroad at no point enters Delaware county, vet as it runs for a long distance down the valley of the Susquehanna there are many places where it affords valuable facilities to portions of the county. From the station Emmons there was run for many years a daily stage by way of Elk Creek to Delhi. From Oneonta there was easy communication into the towns of Franklin and Meredith, and from Unadilla and Sidney Plains into the western towns of the county.
The third attempt to invade the solitude of Delaware county
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was made by the New York and Oswego Midland railroad, now called the New York, Ontario & Western. This road was projected in 1865 and articles of incorporation filed in 1866. It was designed to reach from New York city to Oswego, by running through a. section of the State not before traversed by railroad and thus to open up some hopeful regions which heretofore had been shut in by mountains. Much special legislation was needed to carry out this design. It plainly could not rely for success upon the sub- scription of stockholders who would risk their money in the enterprise. Henry R. Low, Senator from Sullivan county, and Speaker Dewitt C. Littlejohn from Oswego, were in the State legislature when the plans for building this road were under discussion : and by the powerful influence of these two men the needed legislation was procured. The most important of the laws passed was one enabling any town of a county through which the road was to pass to issue bonds for its construction,-the sum to be raised not to exceed thirty per cent. of the taxable property.
Much discussion occurred in regard to the location of the line. Some of the most earnest friends of the road insisted upon the main line being located through the village of Delhi. It was not an easy thing, however, to lay a line through the mountains of Delaware. Engineering questions are involved in it, and patriotic impulses must remain in the background. It was finally settled to make the main line cross the Delaware valley at Walton, and build a branch line to Delhi.
Mr. Littlejohn, who had been made president of the company, traversed the route from end to end, appealing to the several communities for their aid. As he was a man of endless resources and of most earnest and plausible address, he met with uniform success in inducing the towns to bond themselves. In the fore- closure proceedings instituted in 1879 the cost of the road is stated at $26,333,000; of which sum the amount received from bonding the towns was nearly $7,000,000,-the towns in Delaware county furnishing $660,800. For the town bouds thus issued stock was-
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returned by the company. This stock was wiped out by the fore- closure proceedings above referred to; and thus the towns were put in the position of making an absolute gift to this road. Who will say, however, that the benefits derived from it have not more than balaneed the large ontlay? Besides the amounts received from the towns, the company relied for building the road upon the stock subscribed for and on the amounts realized from mortgages. It is ouly necessary to add, however, that the road has never proved a financial success. In 1873 it defaulted on its interest and went into the hands of receivers. In 1880 it was sold to a new company who have re-organized it on a basis which enables it to pay its way. It is now called the New York, Ontario and Western railroad.
The fourth railroad which has penetrated the inhospitable re- gions of Delaware county is the Ulster and Delaware. This grew out of the disputes over the location of the Midland railroad. A strong party with Mr. Thomas Cornell at its head was very desirous of making the eastern terminus of this road at Kingston on the Hudson river, and of extending it westward through Ulster, Dela- ware and other counties. And when it was determined to build the Midland through Sullivan county and so northwest through Dela- ware, Mr. Cornell and his party set about building a road of their own. It was projected in 1865 and begun soon after. It was laid through a most intractable region, among the Shandaken moun- tains, over Pine Hill and then up to the head of the West branch of the Delaware. In 1870 the road was opened to Shandaken and at onee developed a substantial business in carrying summer visitors into the Catskill mountains. In 1871 the road was over Pine Hill, the severest engineering obstacle it had to encounter. In 1872 Roxbury village was reached, and in the same year the village of Stamford. This was the highest point attained (1,888 feet). Here the Ulster and Delaware railroad halted for several years, although the original plans contemplated its extension through Kortright and Davenport. In 1884, it was carried down the valley of the Delaware to the village of Hobart, and finally in 1891 it was still
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further extended to Bloomville where it now rests. This terminus is only eight miles from the village of Delhi.
Like the Midland railroad this also was aided by the towns through which it passed. Thus Middletown was bonded for $100,- 000, Roxbury for $120,000, Stamford for $100,000 and Harpersfield for $100,000. To all these towns and to many not included in the list the road has been of immense advantage. The whole dairy industry of the eastern part of the county has been put upon a new and improved basis. The supplies of lumber, feed and flour which are required by the farmers and others are brought to them at a umch less cost and at a more convenient distance.
XII. Education and Schools.
T HE PIONEER settlers in Delaware county were almost uniformly intelligent and possessed of the elements of education. The descendants of the Hollanders and Huguenots who came into Middletown although not at first hand from Hol- land, yet they brought with them the traditionary regard for schools, and early established them in their midst. It will be remembered that the first outbreak of the Revolution in Middle- town was among the school-boys at the school, where the one called the other a "rebel." The New Englanders who came to Harpersfield, Roxbury, Franklin and Delhi, always after becoming settled in their homes made it their first duty to provide schools for their children. Nor were the Scotch immigrants, who came into Andes, Delhi and Bovina, behind the other nationalities in organ- izing schools, and maintaining them for the benefit of the rising generation.
The State of New York almost as soon as it was constituted, began to legislate concerning education. In 1795 the sum of $50,000 annually was granted for five years for the encouragement of public schools. In 1811 five commissioners were appointed to organize a school system. In 1812 a public school system was organized with Gideon Hawley as superintendent. District schools were instituted to be mainly supported by rate bills. In 1821 the office of State superintendent was abolished and the adminis- tration of the school system entrusted to the Secretary of State. In 1849 a free school law was passed and submitted to the people who sustained it by a large majority. In 1851 the free school law was repealed and rate bills again introduced. Finally in 1867 a
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ยท free school law was again enacted which with occasional amend- ments has remained to the present. No dues are required from the attending children. The schools are supported, first, by public moneys received from the State, and second, by moneys raised by local taxation.
It may not be uninteresting to recall the district school of the early decades of the present century. It may safely be asserted that nearly all the school-honses of that time in the county were of logs. Indeed in the annual report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction for 1892, there were still forty-five log school-houses in . the State. And at a time when the greater part of the dwelling- houses were of logs it is not probable that the school-houses would be better. The log school house was a building ahnost square. It was made by notching the logs into each other and laying them so that the successive logs would be as close to each other as possible. The spaces between the logs were then plastered both on the inside and outside with a mortar made of common elay.
A chimney was built at one end of the oblong building, and an open fire-place furnished the only means of heating the room. A door was eut in the logs at one side of the chimney, and the corner on the other side was used for the storage of wood. A window was cont in the logs opposite to the chimney, which furnished the only light for the little room. Along this end was placed a high slant- ing shelf at which to write, with a slab seat for the accommodation of the writers. The seats for the other scholars were placed on the three sides of the room, but not across the chimney end. They also were roughly hewn slabs, each supported by four wooden legs. The teacher had the dignity of having a little separate table and char, which stood at the end of the scholars' bench on one side. There was an open space in the middle of the Hoor, where the scholars stood up to recite their spelling and reading. The girls sat on one bench and the boys on another; and it was one of the terrible punishments for a mischievous boy to be sent to a seat .among the girls.
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
In the winter time this school was attended by the larger boys and girls, as well as by a part of the smaller ones; but in the sum- mer the work on the farms kept the older children busy, and then only the little ones were able to attend school. In consequence of this the teacher in winter was always a man and in the summer a woman. They were called respectively Master and Mistress. The wages* of the winter teacher were probably about $10 to $15 a month for three months. And the wages of the young woman in summer were about a dollar a week. In both cases the teachers besides their wages in money usually " boarded round:" spending about a week at each of the families in the district.
School life at this little country school-house was most delight- ful and fascinating. There was a little brook near by where the boys used to wade and float their make-believe boats. There was a forest where they wandered, climbing the trees, picking wild flow- ers, and drinking from a cool spring. There was a wild honeysuckle shrub which grew in these woods, and in the season the boys would bring back from their excursions a little bunch of honeysuckle blossoms for the school mistress, which to their great delight she would put in an old ink stand and keep on her little table.
The school assembled at nine o'clock and was dismissed at four. There was a short recess at eleven o'clock; and then at twelve there was an intermission of an hour. Some of the scholars who lived near went home and got their dinner: but most of them brought lunch baskets with them, and at this intermission proceeded to enjoy what their mothers had provided for them. By far the most interesting part of school was this intermission. Nothing ever tasted so good as these simple lunches of bread and butter, a slice of cold meat and perhaps a raw apple. No enjoyment was ever so
* In a history of the Settlement at Fall Clove in Andes there is a record that Robert Craig in 1842 was hired to teach the district school for three months at $12 a month : also that Miss More was paid $17 for teaching seven- teen weeks. This same record also gives the information that $31.34 was received from the State as public money for the support of the school; and. $8.63 as library money . History of Delaware County, ISS ), P. 109.
Gen. Leavenworth Monument in Fore ground.
Stere Quarry Shair i R .k Formation.
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intense as the plays and races and frolies which were indulged in during this noon hour. Although ball playing was not reduced to the system which has since made it the national game, I venture to assert that these school-boys got as much pleasure out of playing "two old cat" as the great professionals now derive from the most scientific game.
There is a queer subject of regretful remembrance which has remained with me to this day. Once the supply of lunch was more than I could dispose of. On my way home I hid a surplus piece of brea:l and butter in the chinks of a stone wall beside the road. No doubt the squirrels found it and made short work of my surplus lunch. But for a long time it worried me to think that I had thrown away this good bread and butter.
The plays and frolies outside of school were, as I have said, far more enjoyable than the exercises inside. There was a blackberry patch by the side of the road where we stopped to gorge our- selves. The patch was on the land of a farmer who being old and fat was accustomed to sit on the porch of his house. He would call to us to "clear out;" but knowing that he was too fat to chase us and too good natured to catch us, we did not remit our berry picking until we had enough.
What shall I say of what we learned in this little country school ? Reading, spelling, writing and arithmetic, were the subjects on which we were employed. Webster's spelling book was the text- book for beginners in reading as well as in spelling. The scholars stood in a row and read or spelled before the teacher. Their ambition was stirred by " going up" and reached its supreme fruition by "standing head." Shame and disappointment followed them as they went down and reached the climax when at last they " stood foot."
Besides the reading matter which was in the spelling book, the older scholars read the English reader. Those who used it will remember the excellent, although somewhat difficult selections of which it was composed. The New Testament was, however, the
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
highest and chief reading book. They skipped the genealogies and some other hard chapters; but the sermon on the mount, and some of the chapters in the gospel of St. John were read and re-read until the reading was half of it reciting from memory.
Writing was only second to reading in respect to the amount of attention which it received. Copy-books with engraved copies had not yet been introduced in this country school. It was the duty of the teacher to set a copy at the top of each page. The pens were made from goose-quills, which preceded in universal use the more modern steel pen. It was quite an important and not always an available accomplishment of a country school-teacher to make good quill pens. We still have a reminiscence of this ancient and neces- sary skill in pen-making in the word "pen-knife," which persists in being used, although the thing itself has passed away for ever.
Ink too was not so easily obtained as now. In the stationery stores ink-powder was sold, which could be mixed with vinegar and water and thus made into a writing fluid. But more often the ink of the country children was made from the sap of the soft maple. This sap was drawn from the tree in the spring, at the same time as the sugar maple is tapped for its sugar-making sap. This sap when exposed to the air becomes black, and when boiled down and treated with copperas makes a dye for coloring black. When it is still further concentrated it forms a very respectable ink. This was what the scholars principally used; but occasionally some high- toned boy put the rest to shame by bringing ink to the school made from the ink-powder which his father had bought.
Arithmetic was never taught in classes. Each scholar proceeded on his own account to cypher through the arithmetic. The book in use during the early part of the present century was Daboll's Arith- metic. It was arranged under successive rules; for example, the rule of addition, the rule of subtraction, the rule of compound ummbers, the rule of three, the rule of square root, etc. A scholar was expected to learn each rule by heart, and then work ont all the examples under it. The teacher's business was to help him when
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appealed to. He usually had a manuscript book containing all the examples correctly worked ont, to which he turned in case of need.
Here is an advertisement of G. & R. White, 38 Maiden Lane, New York, 1804, enumerating some of the books and articles which were in use during the early part of the century.
Webster's Grammar.
Copy-books. Writing Paper.
Murray's Grammar.
School Master's Assistant.
Pon Knives.
Cyphering-books.
Lottery Tickets and Shares.
Copper-plate Copies.
Bibles.
Ink-powder.
Testaments.
.
Dutch Quills.
Catechismis.
Sealing Wax.
Wafers.
Morse's Geography.
Slate-pencils.
I will close this sketch of the country district school with an meident which I am sure none who experienced over forgot. The summer school-mistresses were usually young girls and often very bright and winsome; and of course the boys were devoted to them. One of these attractive school-mistresses was presiding among her uneasy little subjects on a summer afternoon in July. The air grew close and sultry, and the sky became covered with thunderous clouds. A fierce shower broke over the little valley. Lightning fitfully illuminated the dusky interior of the school-house. A deluge of rain poured itself upon the roof and walls, and easily found its way through a hundred gaping cracks. Both mistress and children were thoroughly frightened. They stood about ery- ing piteously and pale with fear. Every blinding flash of lightning. followed almost instantly by the splitting and terrifying thunder, aronsed a new paroxysm of weeping.
But the young girl was equal to the occasion. She got the school Bible from her desk and in the darkened room read with trembling emphasis the 18th psahu:
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
Then the earth shook and trembled :
The foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, Because he was wroth.
There went up a smoke out of his nostrils. And fire out of his mouth devoured :
Coals were kindled by it.
* * * *
At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, Hail stones and coals of life, The Lord also thundered in the heavens, And the Highest gave his voice ;
Hail stones and coals of fire.
And as the comforting verses of the psalm were read the fierceness of the lightning and the rain abated:
With the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful ; With an upright man thou wilt show thyself upright, With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure. * * * The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness, For who is God save the Lord? Or who is a rock save our God?
The fright which had disfigured every countenance gradually faded away; and with the sunshine which followed the storm came back the bright cheerfulness which naturally belonged there.
In addition to the district schools which were established every- where throughout the county, a number of schools of secondary grade have attained much prominence. The oldest of these is the Delaware Academy at Delhi. It was chartered in 1820, General Root being then a Member of Assembly from Delaware conuty. An appropriation of $6,000 for its benefit was made by the legisla- ture from the proceeds of the sale of the lands of Robert Leake, which had escheated to the State on account of his disloyalty in the Revolutionary war. The site for the first building was given by General Root, adjoining the site of the court house. Here it stood until the street was to be cut through, when the building was
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moved back to the place where it now stands, occupied for private uses. In 1856 the present superb site was seeured, and the three buildings erected, where the Academy has since been conducted. About $40,000 was raised for these purposes, mostly on scholar- ships. Below is given the successive principals from the establish- ment of the Academy until the present time.
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