USA > New York > Monroe County > Rochester > History of Rochester and Monroe county, New York, from the earliest historic times to the beginning of 1907 > Part 31
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The present officers of the society are: Presi- dent, George A. Carnahan ; vice-presidents, Rev.
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Nelson Millard, Joseph T. Alling, Mrs. Max legal adoption of the child by those who have Landsberg; treasurer, Mrs. Martin B. Hoyt; re- cording secretary, Mrs. Frank G. Ferrin; corre- sponding secetary, Mrs. Edward S. Ellwanger. The number of children taken to the Shelter dur- ing the past year was 504, and the number of meals served, 2.531. The society employs William A. Killip as superintendent and Richard S. Red- fern as agent.
CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY.
Somewhat in line with the S. P. C. C. and ex- tending its work still further, is the Children's Aid society, which was formed in 1895 to care for those unfortunate little waifs who, in past gen- erations, would have been turned over to the un- kindness and general misery of the poorhouse, and to surround them with such influences as seem to be best fitted, in each individual case, to bring these children to upright, self-respecting manhood and womanhood. These influences are rightly considered to be best secured by placing children in families where they may live in the atmosphere of a home, and where they will have good physical care and such training of head and hand as will fit them for usefulness in the world. The board of supervisors-for the scope of the society is not confined to the city, but extends throughout the county-allows $1.60 a week for the support of each child and $5.00 a year for clothing; sums that are totally inadequate for the purpose and that have to be supplemented by voluntary con- tributions. The wards of the society come into its charge through various channels, as any chil- dren under sixteen years of age, found to be des- titute or under improper guardianship, may be committed hy their parents, or overseers of the poor, or by the courts. Homes are found for these children, temporary or permanent, as the case may be, the hospitality thus extended being in some cases gratuitous, in other instances, a little more than half of the whole number, a small amount being paid. Until the child becomes of age it is visited at intervals by an agent of the society and if it is found that the treatment is improper or the environment is unsatisfactory, the society at once removes its ward, over whom it retains control all the time, and another place is found. In many cases the matter ends in the
taken it in. About. seven hundred children have been received and provided for in this way since the society was organized. The first president was Mrs. E. V. Stoddard, the secretary Miss Mary A. Farley, the treasurer Miss Bertha Hooker, and the chairman of the children's committee Miss Alice Bacon. The present officers are John H. Hop- kins, president ; Mrs. John S. Morgan and Mrs. Charles P. Barry, vice-presidents; Miss Jessie Bacon, secretary, and Mrs. Edward F. Wellington treasurer, with Miss Margaret C. Drury as Cath- olic agent, Miss Amelia M. Goler as Protestant agent, and Miss Mary R. Orwen as general secre- tary.
WOMAN'S EDUCATIONAL AND INDUSTRIAL UNION.
This powerful organization, which was formed in April, 1893, with Mrs. William A. Montgom- ery as president, has already accomplished more than was dreamed of at the outset, and has estab- lished itself as one of the forces of the city, none the less potential for being unofficial. Its scope is very extensive, embracing widely different lines of beneficence. It conducts personal correspondence with leading educators all over the country, keeps in touch with advanced educational methods, and uses its influence to promulgate these methods in our city. It holds monthly meetings, where such topics are discussed and plans for usefulness for- mulated. A sub-committee visits regularly each public school in the city, the object being to be- come fully acquainted with our school system and to bring about a closer, more friendly relation between teacher and patron. The union has done much in the way of securing to poor women their legal rights in chattel mortgage foreclosures and other forms of oppression; it has established a noon resting place for working girls, with lunch at cost prices, and social centers with evening ren- dezvous for the inhabitants of the congested dis- triets ; in connection with the Mechanics' Institute it has put manual training into the public schools; it has sernred from the board of education enough money for the maintenance of vacation schools; it has, in connection with the Playground League, obtained from the city authorities fifty thousand dollars for playgrounds for school children, and it has accomplished great good in many other ways; its present location is on Clinton avenue
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South, near Court street, and its present officers are: Mrs. William A. Montgomery, president; Mrs. William C. Gannett, Mrs. Max Landsberg and Mrs. William Eastwood, vice-presidents ; Mrs. F. F. Dow. recording secretary, with Mrs. S. H. Linn as assistant; Mrs. J. B. Y. Warner, corre- sponding secretary. and Mrs. J. H. Hopkins, treas- urer.
The Children's Playground League, above Te- ferred to, was organized in May, 1903. In that year a portion of Brown square was set off for a recreation place for very young people, and sev- eral persons volunteered to oversee their amuse- ments, to see that they were carried on in the saf- est and most unselfish manner. Since then the park board has taken charge of all grounds that may be devoted to this purpose, Iand has been leased adjoining four of the public schools, and the large sum recently obtained will be used for the purpose of securing increased territory in dif- ferent parts of the city, as well as paying the sal- aries of a supervisor and instructors, who are now regularly employed. To this beneficent agency may fairly he ascribed a part, at least, of the as- tonishing decrease in the number of juvenile ar- rests during the last few years and in the number of drowning accidente to children. The present . officers of the association are: J. Howard Brad- street, president : Dr. Simon L. Elsner. vice-pres- ident ; Benjamin B. Chace, secretary, and Winfred J. Smith, treasurer.
THE ORGANIZATION OF CHARITY.
While there were already a sufficient number of charitable associations in the city, the need of systematization was felt, which should prevent the unnecessary duplication of assistance and should at the same time relieve the citizens generally from incessant calls whose trustworthiness they had no means of investigating. In the autumn of 1890 the Society for the Organization of Charity came into existence, largely through the efforts of Oscar Craig, though he declined to be officially con- nected with it. as his labors were devoted to the epileptic colony that bears his name; the first president was Dr. E. V. Stoddard, the secretary Mrs. Helen D. Arnold. Its object was not so muih to give direct aid, except in cases of emergency. as to help the poor to help themselves, to main- tain co-operation among the various charities of
the city and to keep in communication with sim- ilar organizations in other large places. After it had made a thorough classification of the poor who were in our midst the business depression of 1893 came on, with the consequent widespread in- crease of poverty, and the Chamber of Commerce turned over to this society for distribution the en- tire fund of ten thousand dollars which it had raised to relieve the prevailing distress, Since then the association has been recognized as the proper source of information on the subject of local charity and the proper recipient of any funds that may be contributed for general purposes or for individual cases. The present officers are: William R. Seward, president and also treasurer of the immediate relief fund; William F. Peck and John H. Stedman, vice-presidents; Mrs. Hel- en D. Arnold, general secretary and treasurer.
The B'nai B'rith is a veteran Jewish benevolent society, or rather an order. with different lodges scattered throughout the country. Its age in this city is more than that of a generation, for Zerub- babel lodge was formed here on March 13th, 1864, as the outcome of an oldler organization, called the Gemilus Chesed, which had existed since 1850. Its first president was William Guggenheim, and Jacob Thalheimer now holds that position, the secretaries being David Strauss and Louis Water- man, the treasurer Lewis Stern. Its influence of late years seems to have been somewhat overshad- owed by that of the Hebrew Benevolent society, incorporated in 1867, the present president of which is Abram J. Katz, the secretary Louis Wat- erman and the treasurer Nathan Goldwater.
The Social Settlement, on Baden street, organ- ized in 1901, was at the outset, like the foregoing, under Jewish auspices, and though of late years members of several other denominations have aided in the work and have been on the board of directors, its control is still mainly in the hands of those of the original faith. It is not, in a strict sense, charitable in its nature, but is intended for the betterment of those not in direct need, by showing the means best adapted for the improve- inent of home life, and with this end in view it is intended to build a model cottage, in which the housekeeping lessons can be more fully demon- strated. The present officers are: Mrs. J. L. Garson, president ; Mrs. A. J. Katz, vice-presi- dent ; Mrs. Julius M. Wile, secretary and treas-
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urer; Miss Becca Rosenberg, corresponding see- sand garments. Mrs. George C. Hollister is the retary. The disbursements last year were ten president of the association. thousand dollars.
The Boys Evening Home is the name of an institution that came into existence in the Unita- rian church several years ago. Its object is to gather together the boys of the street, the news- boys or any others, those who have no homes and those whose habitations are not sufficiently de- sirable to be called homes, and to give them one evening each week før quiet enjoyment in reading, playing games or listening to talks that are in- structive and entertaining. At these weekly meet- ings cleanliness is insisted upon, to the extent of an ablution after arrival if not before, and it has been found that this outward and visible sign, to which many of them were previously strangers, has gradually led the way to greater cleanliness of living. While the gatherings have always been held in the chapel of the Unitarian church, and the whole equipment is there, the institution is absolutely nonsectarian, as may be seen from the fact that the principal conductor is one of the fac- ulty of the university.
The Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A., which in the results accomplished will compare favorably with similar institutions in other cities, have been mentioned elsewhere in this work.
The Rochester branch of the Needlework Guild of America has for many years past done good work in collecting and distributing new, plain, suitable garments to meet the demand of hospi- tals, asylums, homes and other places where char- ity can find a field of operations. During last year it handled in that way more than ten thou-
The Monroe County Bible society has been re- served till the last-not because it is the latest as- sociation, for it was one of the very earliest, com- ing next after the Female Missionary society, and is now the oldest in existence in this city-but be- cause its scope is limited, being confined to the distribution, without charge in cases of necessity, of Bibles throughout the homes and public insti- tutions. Once in ten years a thorough canvass of the county is made and a copy of the Scriptures is placed in every home where one was not al- ready found. The society was formed on May 30th, 1821, the officers being Vincent Mathews, president ; William Atkinson and F. F. Backus, vice-presidents ; Enos Pomeroy, corresponding see- retary, and Levi Ward, jr., treasurer. The pres- ent officers are: Rev. James P. Sankey, D. D., president ; Rev. Frank S. Rowland, D. D., vice- president ; Rev. W. J. Reid, corresponding secre- tary; Rev. G. B. F. Hallock, D. D., recording sec- retary; Rev. G. L. Hamilton and Lansing G. Wet- more, joint treasurers.
This will bring to a close the record of those principal agencies, other than purely private ones or those connected with some religious organiza- tion, that may be classed as benevolent, charitable or beneficent. The list is not thereby exhausted, for, if an attempt were made to complete it, it would gradually stretch to the vanishing point, but the influences described above are the leading ones that work for the material benefit of our cit- izens, for the relief of their distresses and for the betterment of their lives.
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ROCHESTER HIGH SCHOOL IN 1838.
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CHAPTER XVII
EDUCATIONAL.
The Private Schools of Rochester-Those of the Early Times and of the Present Day-The Pub- lic School System-The University of Rochester -The Mechanics Institute-The Rochester Theological Seminary-St. Bernard's Seminary -Wagner Memorial College-The Deaf Muto Institute.
THE PRIVATE SCHOOLS.
Migration from New England has always car- ried the school-house with it, and so it was neces- sary that there should be one of those institutions in the settlement of Rochester, even though there were few, if any, pupils to attend it. Miss Huldah M. Strong, who came here with her relatives of the Reynolds family in February, 1813, opened a school before the close of that year and continued to teach it until her marriage with Dr. Jonah Brown in 1816. One would suppose that its loca- tion might be easily determined, but such is not the case. One authority maintains that it was in Enos Stone's barn, but that was on the east side of the river, in what was then and for ten years afterward the village of Brighton, while Miss Strong lived on the west side, where the Arcade now stands, and the passage from one community to the other was difficult if not dangerous. Still,
those objections may have been and probably were, overcome by the fact that in Rochester there could not have been more than half a dozen persons of school age, while in Brighton there were at least fourteen, which was the number with which the small academy started. A little later it was re- moved to a room over Jehiel Barnard's clothing store and tailor shop, on the corner of State and West Main streets.
In the very year of the beginning of that youth- ful institution of learning a lot was donated oy Colonel Rochester for school purposes and a house erected where the municipal building now stands, the location having been from that day to this used wholly or in part for educational pursuita. From the fact that it was called "district school- house number 1" it may be considered that that was, in the truest sense, the forerunner, if not the foundation, of our present common school sye- tem, and it will be so considered in that portion of this chapter which is devoted to that subject. It is impossible to differentiate with any degree of exactness between public schools and private schools for some time after that, as education was not compulsory, neither was it wholly free at any institution. While there were many that were supported partially by local taxation and even by state appropriations of money and yet were es- sentially private schools because they were under private control, there were others that might prop- erly be called public, such as the one just men- tioned, and that on the corner of Mill and Platt streets, as well as the "Brown square old stone school-house." It is a little remarkable that the
" In preparing the section relating to the private schools, the writer has been largely indebted for the earlier portion to a comprehensive chapter on the subject by Mr. George S. Riley. in the "Semi-Centennial History of Rochester," in 1864, while for the part relating to the schools of the present day he is under obligation to Mr. J. Howard Bradstreet, who gathered for him much of the material.
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first village directory, published in 1837 while it contains much useful information on other points has nothing to say about the schools in Rochester, except to mention the female charity established in 1821, though it has a long description of the Monroe high school in Henrietta, several of the trusteees of which resided in our village.
There were, however, plenty of schools here be- fore that, notably a young ladies' academy on Mill street, on the site of the old New York Central railroad station, which was founded about 1820 by Miss Maria Allyn, a teacher of rare ability and attractive personality, which brought to her a large proportion of the daughters of the leading in- habitants. It was near that time, perhaps in that very year, that Philip P. Fairchild and Thomas A. Filer established an English and Latin school on Exchange street, which during its existence was held in high repute, and two schools were started which were probably largely parochial in their nature, one by Rev. Comfort Williams, the pastor of the First Presbyterian church, and the other by Rev. F. H. Cuming, the rector of St. Luke's. Even before that date there were flourishing schools in Brighton, the earliest probably that at the north corner of Clinton and Mortimer streets, the building for which was put up in 1818 and the teacher of which for some time was Lymal Cobb, the author of a spelling-book and a diction- ary that bear his name. In 1821 there was a school on the south side of Main street, near St. Paul, and one on Andrews street, also near St. Paul, and three years later there was one on the north side of Main, between St. Paul and Clinton, kept by Zenas Freeman, attended by many boys who afterward became prominent citizens; this was succeeded a little later by one kept by Mr. White, near the same location, Mrs. Mary Griffin came here from England in 1822 and opened a school for young children at the corner of State and Jay streets, removing it afterward to Allen and then to Exchange street, where she main- tained it till she married Jacob Anderson. About 1824 Rev. Mr. Milligan, who is spoken of as a handsome and accomplished Irish gentleman and scholar, who had just come from the old country, opened a school at the corner of Main and Front streets, in which he was occasionally assisted in teaching by his friend Dr. Penney, of the First church.
'The third ward was by no means destitute of these adjuncts of civilization. One was estab- fished there on Adams street as early as 1820, kept by Mr. Blake, where sometimes fifty scholars were in attendance at the same time, and somewhat later Dr. Bell had a school at or near the same location. Plymouth church stands upon the an- cient site of a school building, though the time of its beginning can not be fixed, even approximately. It must have been quite early, judging from the number of different instructors who are known to have taught there at various times, Messrs. Filer Tateham, Curtis, Morse, McKee, Cook, Miles, Fos- ter and others. The last teacher was Miss Web- ster, who had charge of it just before the building was burned down in 1853, it having been vacated on the transference of the site to the church com- mittee. About 1825 there was a school on Lan- caster (now Cortland) street, taught by Mr. Shafer, long remembered for his free use of the ferule and for his peculiar practice of occasionally smoking during school hours. Not much later Richard Dunning kept a school on Stone street, near Main, at which eighty pupils sometimes at- tended, but it had to be given up because so many tuition bills remained unpaid, owing to lack of means on the part of the parents. The forerunner of all manual training establishments in this part of the state was a school kept by Rev. Gilbert Mor- gan, where the academic exercises were suspended for a few hours each day and the boys devoted themselves to the manufacture of barrels for the flour mills of the village. This was located in the United States Hotel building on West Main street, probably in an annex to that, for the main part of the structure was certainly used as a hotel in 1838. when Henry O'Reilly published bis "Sketches of Rochester," and it was not till long after that that it became occupied by the Uni- versity of Rochester. Without dwelling longer on these early schools of a primary character we will turn now to some of much greater perpetuity and which exercised a vastly wider as well as more enduring influence.
First of these was one whose corporate name was the Rochester High School, and by this title it has always been known, though the directory of 1844 speaks of it as the Collegiate Institute. It was incorporated by an act of March 15th, 1827, which directed that "school districts numbers 4
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MISS SEWARD'S FEMALE SEMINARY, 1838.
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and 14 in the town of Brighton be united in one district for the purpose of instructing youth on the system of Lancaster or Bell, or according to any other plan of elementary education; Levi Ward, jr., Obadiah N. Bush, Davis C. West, Ash- ley Sampson, Peckham Barker, Elisha Johnson, Enos Stone, Elisha Ely, Abner Wakelee, Isaac Marsh, William Atkinson and Samuel Schofield shall be the first trustees." Having purchased from Enos Stone an acre and a half of land on Lancaster street) (so named, probably, from the educational system to be pursued there) which fronted a pleasant lane then leading from Clin- ton street and which included the ground now cov- erel by the chapel of the Unitarian church, the trustees erected a stone building three stories in height, eighty-five feet long and fifty-five in width, with three large entrances and surmounted by a cupola that was furnished with a bell that sununoned the numerous pupils from near an] far. Both building and school existed for just twenty-five years,the former being burned to the ground in the latter part of 1852, and during all that term its reputation stood high among the educational institutions of Western New York. Its first principal was S. D. Moore, Miss Weed and Mr. Van Dake being assistant teachers, Of those who are known to have succeeded these instruc- tors it will be sufficient to mention Lindley Mur- ray Moore, Leander Wetherell and James R. Doo- little, who was afterward United States senator from Wisconsin. Miss Mary B. Allen, Miss Mal- vina M. Snow, Mrs. Greenough, Miss Pierpont, Miss E. C. Clemons aud Miss R. Eaton were suc- cessively, at the head of the female department. Its popularity was, perhaps, at its height during the year ending in April, 1837, during which is reached a total attendance of nearly six hundred, one-third of them being girls. This great in- flux of pupils was largely owing to the fact that Dr. Chester Dewey had come here by a special cail from the trustees and had assumed charge of the school in the preceding May. His reputation as a pedagogue had been established long before that. for he was a professor in Williams college from 1810 to 1825, after which he removed to Pitts- field, near by. to take control of the Berkshire In- stitute at that place; he was a man of great learn- ing and in this position at the head of the high school he speedily became the foremost educator
in Rochester; on the destruction of the building he accepted the professorship of natural sciences in the university, retaining that chair till 1861, when he resigned, dying two years later, at the age of eighty-three.
It was ouly natural that the great success of the high school should stimulate a further de- mand for female education, so Miss Sarah T. Seward, who came here in 1833, opened in that year a school for young women in some part of the United States Hotel building on West Main street; it was afterward removed to the present site of the First Presbyterian church, where the number in attendance increased so rapidly that Miss Seward, feeling the need of larger quarters, erected in 1835 a capacious school-house on Alex- ander street, more ornamental than anything of the kind ever seen here before, most completely furnished, the class-room equipments costing more than twelve thousand dollars, and the whole thing rendered doubly attractive by being situated in the midst of fine grounds. With Miss Sayles as first assistant, and after that Miss Philena Fobes, Miss Sarah C. Eaton and others, the school maintained its popularity till the marriage of the principal tc General Jacob Gould in 1841, and even after that when it was under the direction of her brother, Jason W. Seward, who continued it till 1848, when it became the Tracy Female Institute; in 1856 the property was sold to Freeman Clarke, who erected a residence there, which was taken by the Homeo- pathic hospital in 1894, its capacity being double:1 at that time. The departure of Miss Seward left the third ward without any high-grade institution for the education of young women, a condition of things which could not be contemplated with composure, and so, in January, 1835, even while she was still there, a meeting was held at the office of Jonathan Child, as the ontcome of which stock was subscribed for, a lot on South Fitzhugh street was purchased from Amon Bronson, and in the course of that year Nehemiah Osburn put up the building, a sightly structure, with four white pillars in its front and two stories high, the upper floor being used mainly for gradua- tion and other exercises ; it is remarkable as being the only scholastic edifice now standing of all those raised in that early time, so far as known. The original board of trustees consisted of Jona- than Child, Moses Chapin, Elijah F. Smith.
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