USA > New York > Cayuga County > History of Cayuga County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 34
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28,333 63
$640,179 37
LIABILITIES.
Amount due Depositors,
principal $583,899 12
Interest for six months
ending July 1st 13,376 33
597,275 45
Interest on Deposits to July Ist,
481 86
IS78, on outstanding certificates, Surplus
42,422 06
$640,179 37
CHAPTER XXVII.
HISTORY OF AUBURN, (CONTINUED.)
SCHOOLS-IMPERFECTION OF THE EARLY REC- ORDS-ACTION OF THE LEGISLATURE-EARLY SCHOOLS - SCHOOL ASSOCIATION -- FIRST ACADEMY --- MISS BENNETT'S SCHOOL-OTHER SCHOOLS OF THE VILLAGE -- PROGRESS OF IM- PROVEMENT -- COUNTY SUPERVISION -- FEMALE SEMINARY-FREE SCHOOLS- ACADEMIC HIGH SCHOOL-PROGRESS AND PRESENT CONDITION OF THE CITY SCHOOLS-THEOLOGICAL SEMI- NARY-YOUNG LADIES' INSTITUTE-ORPHAN ASYLUM.
I T is to be regretted that the materials for a complete history of the early schools of Au- burn are not now attainable. The actors in them are dead, and no satisfactory records of them have been preserved.
The schools in this locality were always par- tially under State patronage, the first step in a system of State education having been taken in 1784, by the creation of the Board of Regents, which was organized in nearly its present form in 1787. By an act of the Legislature passed February 28th, 1789, one lot of 600 acres was set apart in each township of the Military Tract for the support of public schools. In 1795, at the suggestion of the Regents, made first in 1793 and renewed the two succceding years, a com- mon school system was established, and $50,000 annually for five years was appropriated from the public revenues for encouraging and maintaining schools in the various cities and towns.
In April, 1796, the third year of settlement here, the settlers took the initiatory step toward securing the benefits sought to be conferred by these acts. A meeting was held at the house of Col. John L. Hardenbergh, and that gentleman together with Ezekiel Crane, Joseph Grover and Elijah Price, were appointed a town com- mittee on schools. This year a log school house was built on the west side of North street, in the locality of the Church of the Holy Family, and was taught by Benjamin Phelps, who was suc- ceeded by Dr. Hackaliah Burt. A second school was soon after opened in Clarksville, in a log cabin which stood on the south-east corner of Genesee and Division streets. A frame school house, with one room, and painted yellow, was erected in 1801, on the east side of South street, and was taught first by a Dr. Steadman, subsequently by David Buck, and in 1806, by Benjamin Phelps, the pioneer teacher. When South street was straightened in later years this building was found to stand in the center of the street. It was removed and subsequently used as a store.
Benjamin Phelps opened a fourth school this same year (1801) in a log building which stood on the north side of Franklin street, between Holley and Fulton streets, and was accustomed to assemble his pupils by means of a cow bell. This school was continued only a year or two, when the building was used as a dwelling house.
In 1801, an act was passed authorizing the es- tablishment of four lotteries, to raise the sum of $25,000 each, one-half of which was to be paid to the Regents, and the other to the State Treas- ury, to be applied for the use of common schools.
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EARLY SCHOOLS.
This was the foundation of the literature and common school fund. In 1805, the net pro- ceeds of 500,000 acres of the public lands, and 3,000 shares of bank stock, were appropriated as a fund for the use of common schools, the inter- est of which, after it had accumulated to $50,000 per annum, was to be distributed as the Legisla- ture should direct. But the provisions of this act measurably impaired its usefulness and effi- ciency, by deferring its benefits to a future day. As a consequence, the schools, left to local en- terprise, languished, and the wealthier classes withdrew their patronage and encouraged the establishment of select schools.
In the fall of 1810 the project of starting an academy was mooted, and in December of that year subscriptions for that object to the amount of $4,110 were secured. Jan. 5th, 1811, the sub- scribers formed themselves into the Auburn School Association, with Hon. Elijah Miller, Da- vid Buck, Major Noah Olmstead, Hon. J. L. Rich- ardson, John H. Compston, John Sawyer, Jehial Clark, David Horner aud David Hyde as the first board of trustees. Jan. 31st, 1811, Robert Dill, who had otherwise contributed liberally toward the enterprise, deeded a tract of five and three- fourths acres for a building site for an academy, to Rev. David Higgins, Elijah Esty, Thomas Wright, Wm. Bostwick, and Dr. Hackaliah Burt, who were to hold the same as a committee of trust till an incorporation was effected, when they were required to convey it to the trustees of such corporation, which they accordingly did Sept. 15th, 1817. February 22d, 1811, articles of agree- ment were entered into by Noah Olmstead, Joseph L. Richardson, David Buck, John Sawyer, David Horner, John H. Compston, Elijah Miller and David Hyde, trustees of the Auburn School As- sociation, and Bradley Tuttle and Jehial Clark, by which the second party agreed, on or before Jan. 20th, 1812, to build "one house or mes- suage," sixty feet long and twenty-five feet wide, the foundation to be built of stone, sunk thirty inches below the surface of the ground and ele- vated the same distance above the surface, to be thirty inches thick, and three feet of the upper part of the foundation to be laid in lime mortar.
The residue of the building was to be made of brick, which were to be not less than eight inches in length and otherwise proportionate, and laid in good lime mortar. The building was to be three
stories high. The first and second stories were to be ten fect in the clear, and divided into two rooms of equal size, with a hall ten feet wide passing through the center ; the third was to be cleven feet, arched overhead, and finished in one room. The floors of the first two stories were to be made of oak plank one and one-half inches thick ; that of the third, of one and one- half inch pine, all planed and matched. The rest of the joiner work was to be of pine. Each room, to- gether with the hall, was to be ceiled up to the surbase. It was to be provided with two panel doors, made of two inch pine, one at each end of the lower hall. The wall of the first story was to be of the thickness of the length of two and a half bricks ; the second, not less than the length of two bricks ; and the third not less than one and one-half bricks. The front and rear were to contain fourteen windows, cach to contain twen- ty-four lights, nine by eleven inches, and be placed, four in the first, and five each in the second and third stories. A semi-circular win- dow, with dead light, was to be put over the front door, which was also to have two side windows, each containing ten lights, nine by eleven inches.
There was to be six windows of same size as the above in each gable end. It was to be provided with two pair of stairs, with cherry hand rail, run- ning up to the respective halls. The doors and windows were to be cased and roped in "fash- ionable style." The top was to be ornamented with a cupola with open belfry pointing from the center of the roof. An iron spire with vane was to be erected from the roof of the cupola, which was to be proportioned to the building and of sufficient strength to support a bell of 250 pounds weight. It was to be furnished with twenty-one movable writing desks of six and one-half feet length and three and one-half feet width, with a shelf underneath with a partition board running lengthwise through the center between the shelf and lid, and a similar partition running cross- wise ; also with forty-two substantial movable benches, each six and one-half feet long, and six- teen movable benches of twelve feet. A perma- nent seat was to be fixed quite round the sides and ends of the upper room. They were also to affix a lightning rod, providing the parties of the first part furnished one ready to be put up before the expiration of the contract. In consideration of which the trustees agreed to pay $3,700
32-2
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CITY OF AUBURN.
from the moneys subscribed by the stockholders in the Auburn School Association, as soon as the money could be collected by virtue of such sub- scriptions.
This contract is signed by all the before-mention- ed persons, except David Buck and Elijah Miller. February 3d, 1812, an acceptance of the build- ing and contract as being completely fulfilled is endorsed thereon. It would be interesting to trace the varied experiences of this institution, which played so important a part in the educa- tion of Auburn's youth, were the means at hand; but unfortunately its records were twice destroyed by fire and hence the data is not attainable. The building above described was destroyed by fire in 1816. Another was erected on its site in 1827, and was advertised Nov. 28th, 1827, as being so far completed as to permit the schools to com- mence there on Monday, Dec. 3d, 1827, at which time John C. Rudd was the principal. After the fire the academy was continued in the north wing of the Theological Seminary. It was removed thence, after 1822, to a two story build- ing which had been previously used as a dry goods store and grocery, and which occupied the site of the City Hall. It was continued there till the completion of the new building, which is the main part of the present one on Academy street, occupied by the High School, and which was transferred to the Board of Education in 1866, for a nominal rent ; two-thirds of the trus- tees, viz : P. P. Bishop, S. H. Boardman, John Brainard, Henry Fowler, A. H. Goss, F. L. Griswold, Charles Hawley, H. Robinson, H. Woodruff and R. Fisk, favoring, and one-third, viz : M. S. Myers, who was then the president of the board, Charles G. Briggs, Wm. Hosmer, C. H. Merriman and Blanchard Fosgate, who was then the secretary of the board, opposing the transfer.
There were, in the construction of the first academy, some peculiarities which indicated the educational and disciplinary views of that day, and which it may be interesting to chronicle. To guard against the propensity to whittle the desks, which then so generally prevailed, they were sanded, which, it was believed, would repel the attempt. But our youth were ingenious and en- terprising and were not to be debarred of their favorite school employment by so flimsy a device. They soon found a way to raise the sanded wood and to freely use their knives, in which they found
unusual pleasure, as a triumph over the older heads, who had thought to outwit them. The desks were whittled and haggled into deformity. Compare the desks of that period with those of our schools of to-day and the contrast is very striking. The latter are kept as free from scratches and injury as the furniture in our dwell- ings, and the effort necessary to protect it, edu- cates the pupils in habits of neatness and care. In the first academy dark cells were provided in which to confine the ugly boys, a method of dis- cipline which our laws will not now permit to be used, except upon the most obdurate of our convicts.
In 1811, preparatory steps were taken by the Legislature to organize the common school sys- tem, which, though established in 1795, lacked efficiency from its imperfect organization. Five commissioners, viz., Jedediah Peck, Samuel Rus- sell, John Murray, Jr., Roger Skinner and Rob- ert Macomb, were appointed to devise a plan of organization, and June 19th, 1812, an act was passed embodying the features of their recom- mendations. In 1813, Gideon Hawley was ap- pointed superintendent of common schools, an office which was abolished in 1821, when the care of the schools devolved upon the Secretary of State. This action of the Legislature gave the State a supervisory control of the common schools and held those immediately entrusted with their care to that degree of responsibility which gave them an importance in the public estimation, which hitherto they had not enjoyed. It stimulated local enterprise and numerous new schools were established, the most prominent one of which in this locality was the one on the site of the Fulton street school, known as the bell school, from the fact that it was the only one in the village provided with a bell. It was a brick structure, containing only one room, erected in 1818, and was conducted on the Lancasterian plan, which was then quite popular. It was taught by a Quaker named Stephen Estes. A second Lancasterian school was opened in the winter of 1822-'3, in what was then known as the western district. It was also built of brick, contained one room, and occupied the south-west corner of St. Peter's Episcopal church-yard. The third quarter's school was opened there Monday, July 21st, 1823, by Isaac Mott, "who came highly recommended by Mr. Dale, the pre-
D. H. ARMSTRONG, M. D.
DAVID H. ARMSTRONG Was born in Hebron. Washington County, N. Y., January 27th. 1827. When he was four years old his father, Robert C. Armstrong, sold his farm in the town of Hebron And moved to the town of Argyle in the same county, where ha bought the farm of his brother. William Armstrong. There Robert raised bis family, which was six in number After receiving a dis- trict school education. a portion of the time under the tutorship of Rev. Alonzo Fleck, A. M., the present accomplished principal of the Clarerack College and Hudson River Institute, in Columbia County, David was sent to the Argyle Academy, And at the age of twenty commenced teaching school at South Argyle. The following year he went to Wayne County, N. Y .. and attended school in the acad- emy at Red Creek. in that county. During the fol- lowing winter be taught school in the northern part of Cayuga County. The succeeding spring . he returned east and commenced the study of medicioe with Orville P. Gilman, of Salem, N. Y . a graduate of Dartmouth Medical College. He pursued his medical studies that year. and then attended lectures in Dartmouth Medical College, where E. R. Peaslee aud D Crosby were at that time pro- fessors.
He subsequently. for five months, taught school in Whiteball, in his native county, and while there spent his evenings in the office of Dr. Adrian T. Wood- ward, who was a son of one of the founders of Castleton Medical College. The following year he returned to Salem and again pursued his stud- ies with Dr. Gilman, and attended lectures io Castleton, Vt.
In the spring of 1852, At the age of twenty-five years, he graduated and commenced the practice of medicine at West Ar- lington, Vt., in one of the numerous valleys among the Vermont bills. There little opportunity was af- forded him for an exten- sive practice, and he removed to East Green- wich, in bia native coun- ty. He removed thence at the expiration of one year to Red Creek,
Wayne County, N. Y., where he practiced his profession until the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion.
Dr. Armatrong took an active part in recruiting the regiments raised in this locality, and on the 27th of September, 1862, he was mustered into the U. S. service by Capt. John N. Knapp, in the old armory, on the corner of State and Dill streets, now being remod- eled by Mr. Chappell for a restaurant and saloon. He entered the 160th Regiment, N. Y. Vols., raised in the district composed of Cayuga and Wayne counties, as Assistant Surgeon, and served in that capacity till his promotion, in the fall of 1864, to the office of surgeon of the same regiment. Dr. Armstrong also held the latter position in the 193d Regiment, N. Y. Vols., which was also raised in this locality.
Dr. Armstrong'a professional services during the war were of a high order and elicited warm commandation from bie associates in arms, who give abundant testimony of bis medical aod aurgical skill aod his untiring devotion to the unfortunate sufferers placed under his care. The highly cultured Dr. Cyrus Powers, of Moravia, theo Surgeon of the 160th Regiment. in a communication to I. V. P. Quackenbush, Surgeon General of New York, dated Franklin, La.,
March 6, 1864, testifies to his exemplary conduct in the discharge of hia duties, and says: " Laat aummer, during the siege of Port Hud- son, when I wes unavoidably [absent] from Illness, and being on detached service, he had the sole aurgicel care of the regiment, and acquitted himself with great credit." A petition recommend- ing his promotion, dated in Camp near Franklin, La., March 7, 1864, is numerously signed by the officers of the 160th Regiment, from the Colonel down, and bears evidence of the esteem in which he waa held. After citing his worthiness for promotion, it saya : " While we would regret to have him taken from the regiment, we would atil] rejoice to see him promoted to a place he is so well qualified to fill.",
A petition similar to the last waa circulated while the regiment lay Dear Charleston, Va .. August 20, 1864, when Dr. Powers tendered his ree- ignation sa surgeon of the regiment, and heare the approval of C. B. Ilutchins, Chief Sur- geon of the lat Division, 19th A. C. Under the same dete, Willian R. Brownell, Medical Direc- tor of the 19th A. C., in a communication to J. B. Van Petten, Lt. Col. Comdg. the Regt., rec- ommending Dr. Arm- strong for promotion, says : " I bear witness to hie faithful and untiring exertiona whilst he has been with your regiment and would call to your miod particularly hia pa- tience and untiring zeal during the alege of Port Hudaon, when the strongest and firmest were nearly ready to yield from heat aud fa- tigue. No one can de- serve promotion more than he .**
[Photo by Squyer & Wright.]
O. W Limstrony lu. 0
Auguat 24, 1864, while the regiment lay near Harpers Ferry, Lt. Col. Van Petten møde appli- cation to Brig. Gen. J. T. Sprague, A. G .. of New York. for Dr. Arm- stroog's promotion to the position vacated by the resignation of Dr. Powers ; and in a com- munication the follow- Ing dey to Dr. Quacken- bush, Surgeon General of New York, he says of Dr. Armatrong : "I re- gard ble claims and mer- Its of a auperlor order. He had experience in Gen. McClelland'e army, and consequent upon Dr. Powers' ill health, which made it neceaasry for him to be detached. Dr. Armstrong has been our Surgeon In charge nearly two yeare, in seven battles And all our field service. At the battle of Bisland and the siege of Port Hudson, he was ao eminently useful that Geo. Wirtzel gave him a letter, strongly urging bis pro- motion, and Advised him to endesvor to secure it, and at the same time he was also recommended for promotion by all the field officera and surgeona of the Brigade. As there was no vacancy on which he had special claim, he was not promoted. He has been very faith- ful to our regiment, and we have great respect for him sa a talented and excellent aurgeon and physician."
A memorial drawn up on the ateamhost Champion, on the Misala- sippi River, and aigned by forty-two officera of varione gradea and commanda, bears grateful tribute to Dr. Armatrong'a virtuea a8 a man : to hia faithfulneas. while bimaelf an invalid. in ministering to the bodily infirmities of the passengers on that ateamer ; to hie aolicitude for thelr comfort : And generosity in supplying with his own means such medicines as they needed.
In March, 1×66. Dr. Armstrong located in Auburn, where he now enjoys an extensive practice.
187
EARLY SCHOOLS.
ceptor of the celebrated Lancasterian School at Albany." The tuition at this school, and indeed at most of the schools of that period, was $1.50 per quarter.
John Grover, Zenas Huggins and Cromwell Bennett, were elected the first board of commis- sioners, and Hon. Elijah Miller, Hon. John H. Beach, David Hyde, Reuben S. Morris and Ste- phen Wheaton, the first board of trustees of Au- relius, (which then embraced the city of Auburn,) under the provisions of the law of 1812, which was amended in 1814, to give it greater effi- ciency.
In addition to the district schools, private and select schools were opened about this period. The first of which we have any account was opened by Miss Bostwick, who kept it a few years and closed it in 1815. In 1816, Miss Al- mira M. Bennett, (now Mrs. Dr. Clary,) who came to Auburn in 1814, in company with her brother, Hilem Bennett, from Sheffield, Berkshire Co., Mass., opened a select school for young la- dies where the Cayuga County Bank now stands, which she kept till the fall of 1823, when she re- moved to the foot of Owasco Lake, in the present town of Fleming, to which locality her father's family had moved in 1819, and opened a boarding school there, which she kept twelve years, com- mencing with twelve pupils and closing with about fifty. Miss Bennett was married May 28th, 1837, to Dr. Joseph Clary, then a resident of Throopsville, where he died in 1863. Mrs. Clary, now nearly ninety-two years old, (was ninety-one in January, 1878,) is living in Auburn, in excel- lent health, and with mental faculties wonder- fully preserved.
A Miss Parrott kept a select school a few years subsequent to Miss Bennett's departure, on Gene- see street, in the old Underwood building. E. Howard was teaching a school here in 1822, and advertised that "he would open an evening school in his school room on the academy green, Jan. 5th, 1823, for the instruction of young ladies and gen- tlemen in writing, arithmetic and English gram- mar." A Mr. King opened a school Monday, De- cember Ist, 1823, in the yellow building opposite the Presbyterian meeting-house. The stone dis- trict school house in Clarksville was built in 1824. A small brick school on North street, was erec- ted in 1827, and a similar building was erected in 1828 on School street, which derived its name
from that building. It has since been enlarged and altered and is now used as a dwelling- house.
From 1819 to 1827 various appropriations of lands, stocks and money were made for the in- crease of the school fund; and $100,000 were or- dered to be annually distributed, while an equal sum was required to be raised by tax. In 1835, teachers' departments were first established in academies. In 1838 the common schools were reorganized and assumed the form, which, with few exceptions, they retained till 1849. An an- nual appropriation from the United States de- posit fund of $110,000, an amount equal to the revenue then derived from the common school fund, was provided for, and an additional $55,000 annually from the same fund was granted to be expended in the purchase of suitable books for district libraries, the establishment of which was recommended in 1830. This $220,000 was ap- plied to the payment of teachers' wages, and was apportioned among the several counties, towns and wards, according to their population, and paid over to the treasurer of each county for dis- tribution. The Supervisors were required to raise annually by tax a sum equal to the amount thus received ; and were empowered to raise an additional amount, not exceeding twice that sum, which the electors of a town might vote for school purposes.
In 1841 the office of Deputy Superintendent in counties was established ; and in 1843 the offices of Town Inspectors and School Commis- sioners were abolished, and that of Town Su- perintendents created. In the latter year El- liot G. Storke, then a resident of Sennett, was elected County Superintendent, and through his indefatigable efforts, ably seconded by those of Philo H. Perry, who was elected the same year Town Superintendent of Auburn, great improve- ments were made in the condition of the com- mon schools of the city and County, and valuable information obtained, which ultimately led to official recognition of existing defects, and the establishment of a free school system. Mr. Storke's investigations disclosed the fact that out of the 226 district schools in this County at that time, only one contained more than one room ; and that while many of them were so rudely built and sadly out of repair as to cause the wealthy classes to shun them, they were also
188
CITY OF AUBURN.
neglected by the poorer classes, who were unable to pay their children's tuition and unwilling to bear the reproach of being exempted therefrom by the trustees.
In this year also (1843) permission was grant- ed, under certain restrictions, to expend the ap- propriation for school libraries, for maps, globes and other school apparatus. This diversion and the insufficiency of local aid greatly impaired the usefulness of the district libraries, which, in 1866, were consolidated and made the nucleus of the Central Library in the High School building.
Previous to this, in June, 1837, Mr. and Mrs. E. Hosmer started the Auburn Female Seminary on the corner of Genesee and Washington Sts., on the site of the house now owned by Charles M. Howlet. It had a large attendance from the beginning, not less than 140 pupils, the unsatis- factory condition of the common schools securing for it a liberal patronage. The Hosmers re- moved after a few years to Moravia, where they also kept a school, and were succeeded here by John Wilson, who kept the seminary a number of years. Mr. Scribner succeeded, but remained a short time only, when Rev. Mr. Rudd, a grad- uate of Auburn Theological Seminary, under- took its management, and during his occupancy, in 1849, the building was destroyed by fire and the seminary abandoned.
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