History of Ontario Co., New York, Part 31

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The Geneva Classical and Union School accommodates from nine hundred to one thousand pupils, and employs from twenty to twenty-two teachers. The schools are all carefully classed and graded, and embrace a complete common. school and academic education.

The primary or branch schools embrace a three-years' course; then the pupils are, on examination, admitted to the intermediate department, where they spend another three years, and are, on ezamination, admitted to the senior common school department, which requires three years more. The academic department has three separate divisions in its course of study, vis., classical, mixed, English, each requiring a three-years' course. The schools are free of charge to all residing in the district, and the best of teachers are employed. The Geneva Classical and Union School is designated also to instruct a normal class under the regents of the University. It has fitted many young men for college, many for teachers, and sent abroad many more to occupy places of trust and honor. As it was the first institution of the kind in its organisation, so now it is one of the first in moral and intellectual improvement.

HISTORY OF CANANDAIGUA ACADEMY .*

The history of Canandaigua Academy is closely connected with that of the Phelps and Gorham purchase, in western New York. Judge Phelps and Judge Gorham, the main purchasers of this tract, were men, of great enterprise and ability. They were also men of culture and education, and hence among their first acts was the setting apart of a large tract of land for the purposes of an academy or seminary, and that of a high order.

The deed of conveyance was made January 28, 1791, reciting that " We, Nathaniel Gorham, of Charlestown, in the commonwealth of Massachusetts, and Oliver Phelps, of Suffield, in the State of Connecticut, of our own pleasure and divers considerations moving thereunto, do give, etc., six thousand acres of land in the county of Ontario, and State of New York, for the purpose of establishing an academy or seminary of learning in said county, at township No. 10, in the third range, which said township lies on the north end of Canandaigua lake, and adjoining thereon, which land is made subject to the management and direc- tion of His Excellency, George Clinton, Governor of the State of New York, and Robert Morris, of the city of Philadelphia, Esqr., to us the said Nathaniel Gorham and Oliver Phelps, Faqra., to the Rev. John Smith, of Dighton, of the commonwealth aforesaid, and the first learned minister of the church and religion who shall be settled in the work of the ministry at the aforesaid township. No. 10, where the proposed school of learning is to be fixed, and to his successors in the work of the ministry, etc."

On the 12th day of February, 1795, Oliver Phelps, Nathaniel Gorham, Arnold Potter, and Nathaniel Gorham, Jr., applied to the regents of the University of this State for an act of incorporation, stating "That they are founders and benefactors of an academy about to be erected and established at Canadaque, in the county of Ontario, for the instruction of youth in the languages and other branches of useful learning, and that they have contributed more than one-half in value of the real and personal property and estate collected or appropriated for the use and benefit of the same."

The sot of incorporation was granted, bearing date March 4, 1795, with the following trustees : Nathaniel Gorham, Oliver Phelps, Israel Chapin, Nathaniel Gorham, Jr., Thomas Morris, Arnold Potter, John Smith, Timothy Hosmer, Charles Williamson, James Wadsworth, Oliver Leicester Phelps, Daniel Penfield, Ambrose Hull, John Codding, John Wickham, Moses Atwater, Judah Colt, Israel Chapin, Jr., and Amos Hall. The act of incorporation bears the signatures of George Clinton, Chancellor, and De Witt Clinton, Secretary. In a subsequent deed, dated January 1, 1799, explanatory of the former deed of conveyance, and signed by Oliver Phelps, it is declared that it "was the original intention and mutual agreement of Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham that part of the lands conveyed in the aforesaid deed should be exclusively appropriated to the purpose of promoting in the minds of the youth to be educated at said academy an ardent attachment to rational liberty and the just rights of man, and also to the purpose of assisting to raise up humble merit, depressed by poverty, to the condition of extensive usefulness to the community"; therefore it was provided that out of the income from certain lands mentioned " there should be set apart by the mid trus- tees and their successors yearly the sum of twenty dollars, as a premium, to be given to that youth, being a student of said academy, who shall compose, and at the yearly commencement of said academy deliver and pronounce publicly in the presence of a majority of the trustees present, the best oration on "The Trans- cendent Excellence of a Genuine Representative Republican Government, Effect- ually Securing Equal Liberty, Founded on the Rights of Man;" and that the residue of the annual profits which shall arise from the said lands shall be exclu- sively applied towards educating in maid academy such young men an, having bright intellects and amiable dispositions, bid fair to be useful members of the community, but, from the incompetency of their resources, are unable without assistance from the fund hereby appropriated to acquire a suitable share of literary information to enable them to do extensive good to their fellow-men." The first recorded meeting of the trustees was held July 12, 1796, at the house of Na- thaniel Sanborn, inn-holder; and the first official act was to elect two trustees- Nathaniel W. Howell, in the place of Israel Chapin, and Dudley Saltonstall, in the place of Nathaniel Gorham, both deceased. A committee was also appointed to solicit subscriptions for the benefit of the institution, and another to superin- tend the erection of a building and to employ an instructor. A subscription was accordingly opened for the new academy, and the paper bears the names of forty persona, which names, as a matter of some local interest, are here given,-

Oliver Phelps, 6000 sores of land, 4000 for himself, and 2000 in behalf of Nathaniel Gorham, deceased; Gad Wadsworth, $100; Ebeneser Merry, $15; Frederick Hosmer, $25 ; Reuben Thayer, £100; Arnold Potter, 200 acres of land;

. By N. T. Clarke, Principal.

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HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY, NEW YORK.

Nathaniel Gorham, by Oliver Phelps, £100; Timothy Hosmer, 100 acres of land ; Thomas Morris, the legal interest of $1000 annually ; Charles Williamson, £500; Moses Atwater, legal interest of £100 annually; Amos Hall, legal interest of £100 annually ; Nathaniel W. Howell, $100; Nathaniel Norton, £100; Nathan Elliot and James K. Guernsey, $70; Nathaniel Perry, $100; Lemuel Chipman, $100; Phineas Bates, $100; Thaddeus Chapin, £50; Israel Chapin, £50; Luther Cole, $10; Samuel Abbey, $10; Peter B. Porter, $25; Judah Colt, $250; William A. Williams, $100; Nathaniel Sanborn, $50 ; Stephen Bates, $10; Eara Platt, $20; John Warren, $10; Daniel Brainard, $10; Jacob Brad- ley, $30; James Austin, $10; John Keyes, $6; Daniel Gates, $15; Elijah Murry, $15; Elijah Morgan, $10; Herman Ely, $10; Theodore Sheppard, $10; Joseph Hill, $5.

These subscriptions, excepting the first two, were collected by Judge Hosmer. Hence it appears that the sum total of the subscription amounted to 6300 acres of land, $1216, and £800, and the legal interest on $1000 and £200, converting it all into currency, the land at twenty cents per acre; the whole amounted to $4581.

From the few records which are preserved, it appears that a building was begun in 1796, and a school was organized the same year, but under what teacher is not known.

In the record of the meeting held November 17, 1804, it appears that a com- mittee was appointed to employ some suitable person to teach a grammar school in the academy.

Among the earlier records of the board of trustees are the following: Voted, November 17, 1804, that the board next proceed to fill the vacancy occurred by the removal of Ambrose Hull out of the United States, he having removed to Florida.

Voted, June 25, 1806, that Israel Chapin, Moses Atwater, and N. W. Howell, be a committee to dispose of some of the most salable lands, whereof the ab- solute fee simple is in this corporation, to such an amount as will finish and paint the academy.

Voted, July 30, 1810, that John Greig, John C. Spencer, and Luther Cole be trustees to fill certain vacancies then existing.

Voted, that Moses Atwater, Nathaniel W. Howell, John C. Spencer, William Williams, and John Greig be a committee to superintend the instruction in said sosdemy, with authority to establish a system of education to be pursued therein and a code of rules and regulations for the government thereof; to determine on the qualifications of such as may be admitted as students, and from time to time to visit and inspect the school, and see that the rules and regulations adopted for the government and instruction thereof be enforced.

Voted, November 19, 1810, that Mr. Gorham be a committee to see that the school be constantly supplied with firewood for the ensuing winter.

September 7, 1811, that the committee of repairs be authorised and requested to complete the second story of the academy building as soon as possible; and that the school committee be authorized to employ an assistant teacher in the academy.

December 3, 1811, that Mr. Howell be authorised to pay the sum of twenty dollars to Reuben Orris, one of the students of the academy, being the premium awarded to him for composing and publicly pronouncing, at the late annual com- mencement of the academy, the best oration on the transcendent excellence of republican government, in pursuance of a limitation in the deed of conveyance executed to this corporation by Oliver Phelps, deceased.

May 23, 1812, that John Greig, John C. Spencer, and Myron Holley, be a committee to memorialise the Legislature, stating the claims of the academy to be erected into a college.

Voted, November 19, 1810, that, on recommendation of John C. Spencer, Nathaniel Jacob, Jr., be employed as principal of the academy for one year at a salary of six hundred dollars, payable quarterly.

September 15, 1813, that the school committee be directed to engage Rev. Mr. Howes to instruct the academy at least for one year upon the terms agreed upon with Dr. Jacob; also that the school committee be authorised to purchase and distribute.such prises as they may think proper on examination and exhibition days, to be paid for out of the funds of the institution, provided such purchases do not exceed the sum of twenty dollars.

December 6, 1813, that Rev. Mr. Howes be informed that it is desirable that he should eat at the same table with the pupils, that he take such oversight of the wood delivered at the academy for the use of the school as may be necessary to prevent any improper use or loss of it, and that he be at liberty to keep a fire in his lodging-room provided he defray the expense thereof. July 18, 1814, that the thanks of the. board be tendered Rev. Eara Witter for the impressive and appropriate address just delivered by him in the school-room, etc.

October 20, 1817, that the resignation of Mr. Witter be accepted, to take place on the first of May next. At the same meeting it was voted that the building

committee be authorized to procure materials and prepare for the accommodation of a principal of the academy and of a steward, and to contract for the erection of such a building.

Voted, April 20, 1818, that the board secure the services of the Rev. James Stevenson, of the city of New York, as principal of the academy, at a salary of eight hundred dollars a year, together with a dwelling and the use of the academy lot, and that two hundred dollars additional be given to him in token of their regard, and to assist him to remove his family to this place.

Voted, October 3, 1818, that public notice be given that the academy will open for the reception of students on Monday, the 12th of October, instant, and that the price of board shall not exceed one dollar and seventy-five cents per week, and washing fifty cents per dozen, the students to furnish their own beds and furni- ture, and their proportion of fuel, and that the tuition be five dollars per quarter. These records have been recited here mainly to give some idea of the working of the academy in its early history.

From these records it would appear that a building (of wood) was erected in 1796, and so much of its lower story finished as to admit of its use for that year; that a school was opened; that during the next six or eight years the academy was completed and painted, and that the school was in the second story, the lower rooms being used by the preceptor and his family; that originally the two sexes were educated together; that among the first teachers were,-Dudley Saltonstall (probably), Rev. Eliphalet Coleman, Thomas Beals, Rev. Mr. Chapman, Rev. Mr. Howes, Rov. Esra Witter, and Rev. James Stevenson.

It is probable that Dudley Saltonstall was the first teacher in the academy. His name is cherished by our old people with great respect. He seems to have been a genial man, much beloved by his pupils, and much respected by the trus- tees, of which board he was some time a member. He was not unlike the village schoolmaster described by Goldsmith.

" A man severe he was and stern to view, Yet he was kind, or if severe in aught The love he bore to learning was in fault."

There are no records to show the success of the school until the accession of Mr. Stevenson in 1818, although there is abundant evidence of the struggle through which the academy had to pass previous to that time, and the school was kept in operation only by loans or by subscriptions on the part of its friends, and during the four years of Mr. Stevenson's administration it was not self-supporting. The sum total of receipts for tuition, board, wood, and washing, during the first year of Mr. Stevenson's was one thousand three hundred and seventy-nine dollars and eleven cents, and expenses were one thousand three hundred and eighty-two dol- lars and twenty-three cents, leaving a deficit of three dollars and twelve cents; and the last year, 1822, the sum total of all receipts for tuition was six hundred and ninety-nine dollars and ten cents, and Mr. Stevenson's eight hundred dollars, showing a deficit of one hundred dollars and ninety cents. Ichabod Spencer, afterwards Rev. Dr. Spencer, of Brooklyn, succeeded Mr. Stevenson, and was prin- cipal for two or three years. He was succeeded by Mr. George Willson, after- wards the author of Willson's Arithmetic and Class Reader. In the spring of 1828, Mr. Henry Howe, a graduate of Middlebury College, Vermont, then ro- cently from Pompey Hill Academy, in Onondaga county, was elected principal, and he entered at once upon his labors. Very soon, under his efficient manage- ment, the old wooden building became too strait to meet the demands of the school ; and so in 1834-35 the building was entirely remodeled and enlarged. It was inclosed with brick, raised one story, and extended east and west by new and spacious additions, taking the form it has to-day. It was considered at the time a building of fine proportions, and well arranged for school and family pur- poses; and although it has not the style and finish of many modern school build- ings, yet for beauty of location, for arrangement and convenience of school-rooms, and apartments for the family of the principal, it ranks among the best academies of the State; and as to its sanitary condition, it is unsurpassed.

Up to the time of Mr. Howe's administration, the academy had never been self-supporting. It had depended entirely upon home patronage, with but few exceptions. He came soon to see that if the school ever became prosperous, it must command and receive patronage from abroad; hence the necessity of a well-planned and well-conducted boarding department, and that under the charge of the principal instead of a steward, as it had before been done.

He therefore began to take boys from abroad into his own private family, and soon found so many applications, that he asked of the trustees the enlargement of the academy, as described above.

In this enlargement, the building was fitted up for the accommodation of some thirty or forty boarders, who could be in the family of the principal, and under his immediate care. Mr. Howe had, in the seven or eight years that he had been in the academy, awakened a good deal of interest in educational matters. He had traveled through the towns lecturing upon various topics of interest, intro-

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HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY, NEW YORK.

ducing blackboards into the common schools, organizing associations of teachers and becoming personally acquainted with them, and ascertaining the educational needs of the schools in the vicinity ; so that when the new building was opened in 1834, it was filled to its utmost capacity almost at once. The record of the summer term of 1830 (the earliest found among Mr. Howe's papers) shows an. attendance of fifty-five students, of whom twenty-six were from abroad. Among those names, and who will be recognized by many among us, were H. Channing Beals, Jacob Morris, John Greig Howell, Selden Marion, Edmund Chesebro, Am- brose Spencer, Elnathan Simmons, George Willson, and others. The attendance increased regularly, so that during the last term in the old academy, ending April, 1833, the number in attendance was seventy-five. On the 22d of July of that year the school was removed to the old court-house, with an attendance of sixty- siz. On the 15th of May, 1834, the school was opened in the new academy building, with an attendance of ninety-six, sixty-two of whom were from abroad. In the term ending October 5, 1836, the attendance was one hundred and fifty- nine, and the term following, one hundred and eighty-six.

My acquaintance with the academy began in the spring of 1837. I had heard of its good name, and having finished my second winter's school, I found myself on the 29th of May enrolled among the students of the academy. My name stood on the roll one hundred and thirty-two, only nine more coming in that quarter after me. The school year was then divided into two terms of five months each, with a month's vacation between them, each term being divided into two quarters of eleven weeks each. During the term in which I entered the acad- omy there were in the academic department one hundred and sixty-three students, and forty-nine in the primary department, making in all two hundred and twelve. Among the young men whom I found as students were, Samuel H. Torrey, Gor- ham; Thomas S. Beals, Thomas F. Rochester, Rochester; Fernando Jones, Chicago; Charles C. Fitzhugh, Genesee; Walter S. Hubbell, Philip Spencer, John and James Rankine, Richard Church, Angelica ; James G. Shepard ; and in the primary department were such boys as George Cheney, Thomas B. Carr, William B. Duncan, Albion Ellis, Richard Pierson, Edward Shepard, Dwight Munger. The teachers I found in the academy were, Henry Howe, principal ; Horatio .N. Robinson, A.M., professor of Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and Chemistry ; Samuel S. Howe, A.M., Robert McNeil, A.B., professors of the Greek and Latin Languages; Louis Provost, teacher of the French Language; Jacob T. Hotchkiss, A. B., Daniel Willis, teachers of English Grammar, Arith- metic, Geography, and Penmanship.

The trustees of the academy at this time were, Oliver Phelps, Moses Atwater, Nathaniel W. Howell, Thomas Beals, Evan Johns, John C. Spencer, Walter Hubbell, Francis Granger, Jared Willson, James D. Bemis, Thaddeus Chapin, Alexander Duncan. From a statement of the trustees, it appears that the plan of the academy embraced a thorough and extended course of English and mathe- matical study, instruction in the Latin and Greek classics to an advanced stand- ing of one or two years in college, the teaching of the French language, and a department for the education of common-school teachers.

The charges for tuition were four dollars a quarter, and board was one dollar and sixty-four cents per week. There was also a " Family Organization," and Mr. Howe took boys into his family for one hundred and thirty-five dollars a year. The building was arranged for five teachers, and for the accommodation of about one hundred and fifty scholars, averaging about thirty scholars to a teacher. The trustees believed that a school of that size, or a little less, was the most desirable in every point of view; that it could do more thorough and more satisfactory work than if it were much larger,-an opinion which the subsequent history of the academy has abundantly confirmed. Mr. Howe continued in the charge of the academy until March, 1849, when from failing health he resigned the principalship, and retired upon a farm some two miles from the village, where he remained until his death, June 6, 1865.

It is fitting that a brief notice of Mr. Howe should be introduced here, for to him more than to any other one man is the academy indebted for its permanent foundation and subsequent prosperity. Henry Howe was born in Shoreham, Vermont, in 1797. He was educated at Middlebury College. After graduating, he was tutor in the college for two years, then was principal of Castleton Semi- nary, and subsequently principal of the academy at Pompey Hill, in Onondaga county of this State. He came to Canandaigua in the spring of 1828, to take charge of the academy here. He found it in a very unpromising condition. The building was small, with no conveniences for a school or family ; but with a sin- gleness of purpose, and with great hopefulness, he entered upon the work which, although he did not then know it, proved to be the work of his life. Under his energy the school began to show unmistakable evidences of a real prosperity. The. number of pupils largely increased, and prejudices and opposition to a liberal education began to give way. He traveled through the country, as has already been stated, and by his labors created much interest in the education of our youth.

From the first he identified himself with every improvement relating to the vil- lage or county, and he soon had the satisfaction of seeing great numbers of young men gathered around him for instruction. Mr. Howe continued in charge of the academy for twenty-one years, and then, in 1849, retired to his farm, in the management of which he became greatly interested, and by which his health was to a good degree restored.

But it was ere long apparent that his best energies had been spent, just as he was most glad they had been, in bringing the young men, only not of this com- munity, but of many others, to the privileges of a refined and liberal education, and who now, all over the land, rise up and call him blessed. I speak from a sense of personal attachment to him, which grew up in the intercourse of teacher and pupil. He seemed to me to become personally interested in his pupils, and to enter largely into their sympathies and aims, and to unite, in a remarkable degree, the qualifications of a good teacher with the kindness of parental regard. It is true he did not amass very much of this world's goods (faithful, earnest, self- denying teachers rarely do), but he did a noble work, and one which will outlive. his own time, and result in untold blessings to other generations. His work was that of a most pure and sincere Christian teacher, and his memory is fragrant with the odor of faith and love.

Upon the resignation of Mr. Howe, Mr. George Willson and myself conducted the academy as a day school for the spring term, when Mr. Marcius Willson, who had been a former student in the academy, and at which he prepared for Union College, was elected principal, and entered upon his labor in the fall of 1849.

During the four years of Mr. Willson's administration, the course of instruction was considerably modified by the introduction of more extended historical study, and by a great enlargement of the department of the natural sciences. Upon Mr. Willson's resignation, in 1853, I was chosen principal, which position I accepted, and have occupied without intermission until now, having just entered upon my twenty-fourth year of service in this relation. During the first six years I resided in the building, and had the entire charge of the school in all its departments ; but for the last seventeen years I have resided out of the building, and have intrusted the care of the building, premises, and boarding department to an associate or resident principal, Mr. Wm. M. Mclaughlin serving as such six years; Mr. Chas. S. Halsey, seven years ; Mr. E. J. Peck, two years, and Mr. E. S. Hall, two years.

It does not become me to speak very much in detail of the academy while it has been under my charge, any further than to give some of the results of that term of service.

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History of Ontario Co., New York, Part 31

Author: Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages: 391

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 391