History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. II, Part 12

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898,
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1286

USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. II > Part 12

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Previous to the incorporation of Youkers as a city in 1872, there were in the town six public schools, known as Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, numbered according to their dates of formation. Each of these schools was, as to control, independent of the others, having its own separate board of trustees. No. 3 was at Mosh- olu, within the territory at a later day set off as the town of Kingsbridge, and later still annexed to the city of New York. Within the last two years, however, a new school has been opened in Youkers, to which again the No. 3 has been assigned. Then, too, a school of superior grade to all the rest Has been formed. It was first denominated the "Central," but is now called the "High" School. So the city has now seven schools, the High School and six pri-

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

mary and grammar schools, known as Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

The High School is at present accommodated in a leased building, entered from Hudson street between South Broadway and Riverdale Avenne. No. t is a small ungraded school, with but one teacher. It has a large new building, located on the Saw-Mill River Road, about three-quarters of a mile north of St. John's and Oakland Cemetaries. No. 2 is a very large graded school, with many teachers and many hun- dreds of pupils. It is located on a very high eleva- tion between Waverley and School Streets and front_ ing on both. No. 3 is a new school, first opened in 1884. It has a new building, so far carried to one story only and waiting to be completed, when its com- pletion may be needed. It is located on Hamilton Avenue, not far from the south line of the city. No. ! is a small ungraded school, with one teacher only, but has a fine building, just erected upon Trenchard Avenue, on the east side of the city, near the Bronx River. No. 5 is a small ungraded school, with but one teacher. Its buikling is in good order and located at the corner of Central Avenne and the Tuckahoe Road. No. 6 is a very large graded school with many teachers and many hundreds of pupils. It has a large and commodions building, located on Ashburton Avenue, a little west of North Broadway.

All these schools (except No. 3, recently formed) were wholly independent of each other till July 12, 1881, when they were consolidated under a legislative act passed May 27 of that year, providing for the ap- pointment by the Mayor of one city Board of Educa- tion, to consist of fifteen members who were to have the control of all the public schools. The history and statistics of Nos. 1, 4 and 5 before 1881 we cannot give. But we have the following particulars in regard to Nos. 2 and 6, the large public schools, which will be of interest :

School No. 2. The nnelens of the present building was put up in 1846, and at once in that year received the pupils from the old school on North Broadway, whose history we have given. The new house was two stories in height and those who built it are said to have expressed the hope that it would "be large nongh for all time." The progress of events has shown that their hope was disappointed. It has been so often remodelled and enlarged that those who knew the original building can hardly tell where it is in the present honse. The school was erected into a Union Free School August 11, 1858, with its okl principal, Mr. M. B. Patterson, continned in his position. The subsequent principals, down to 1881, when the schools were consolidated under one Board of Education, were Thomas O'Reilly, elected July 18, 1862; An- drew J. Hannas, elected February 23, 1865 and John A. Nichols, elected May 9, 1867. The latter held his position till Iss1, when he was elected by the City Board, Superintendent of the City Schools.

The following gentlemen were members of the

Board of Education of No. 2 between 1858, the date of its organization as a Union Free School, and 1881, when it passed under the control of the City Board : William N. Seymour, James H. Monckton, John Hobbs, Josiah Rich, Thomas Smith, J. Henry Wil- liams, John M. Mason, George B. Upham, MI.D., Jacob Read, James W. Mitchell, Augustus W. Doren, Thomas O. Farrington, Rev. Victor M. Hulbert, Hi- ram K. Miller, Robert P. Getty, Rev. David Cole, William Radford, William Iles, Rudolf Eickemeyer, William Macfarlane, Edward Simmons, Duncan Smith, George Stewart, Frederick A. Back, John P. Ritter, James V. Lawrence, Haleyon Skinner, John O. Campbell and Rufus Dutton. The Presidents of the Board during the period were John Henry Wil- liams, David Cole, Rudolf Eickemeyer and Duncan Smith.

School No. 6 .- This school was established under a special legislative act, passed April 19, 1861. Its school-house on Ashburton Avenue became ready for use and was opened June 16, 1862, with Mr. James Weir Mason as principal. Mr. Mason resigned his principalship at the end of the first year, and Mr. Thomas Moore was appointed October 1, 1863. Mr. Moore held his position till the consolidation of 1881, from which time male principals of the Grammar- Schools, except for one year, have been discontinued. School No. 6 and School No. 2 were founded originally by different elements, and the former claimed for its organization, its course of study, its teaching, its pupils, its examinations and its commencements a superiority over the latter. Efforts were made to bring them nuder a consolidated government by voluntary consent of their boards and constituents. But this claim always prevented. Whatever may at any time have been the justice of any such chim by or for No. 6, of course all ground for it long ago passed away. The equip- ments of both schools are now almost without limit for completeness. Both have ample accommodations and outfits, and both enjoy the unlimited confidence of the whole city.

The following gentlemen were members of the Board of Education of No. 6, between its first open- ing in 1862, and 1881 when it passed under control of, the city board : John M. Mason, George B. Upham, M.D., Isaac II. Knox, Everett Clapp, Britton Rich- ardson, Stephen II. Thayer, Sr., J. Foster Jenkins, M.D., Abijah Curtis, George B. Pentz, Edward P'. Baird, John W. Oliver, William F. Cochran, James P. Sanders, Ezekiel Y. Bell, Edward O. Carpenter, James Stewart, Daniel T. Macfarlan, Frederick C. Oakley, William S. Carr, Matthew II. Ellis, Thomas C. Cornell, Edwin R. Keyes, John HI. Keeler, Valen- tine Browne, M.D., Samuel Swift, M.D., Fayette P. Brown and Dennis Murphy. The presidents of the board during the period were in the order named,- Justis Lawrence, Dr. George B. Upham, John M. Mason, Edward P. Baird, Isaac H. Knox, James l'. Sanders, Matthew H. Ellis and Dr. Samuel Swift.

YONKERS.

Before the consolidation of 1881 the territory of the city had been districted with reference to the public- schools, and parents who, living within one district, preferred to send their children to the school of another, were charged rate bills for tuition. Annual school-meetings of the people were held at the respec- tive school-houses on the first Tuesday evening of October. At these meetings the trustecs made their reports to the people, submitted estimates of the cur- rent year's working expenses and asked for appropri- ations to meet them, which were granted and raised by separate tax for the public-schools. These meetings were closed with the voting for trustees. It had been apparent for a few years before 1881 that Yonkers was outgrowing this plan, which was evidently not adapted to large cities. Indeed, it had been almost the last city in the State, if not the very last, to retain it. The popu- lar meetings of October, 1880, showed the need for a change. During the following session of the legisla- ture a bill for consolidation was prepared by'ex-Judge Matthew H. Ellis and approved by other competent gentlemen and its passage secured. It was passed May 27, 1881, and went into operation the same year. It provided for the appointment by the Mayor, inde- pendent of confirmation by the Common Council, of fifteen citizens as a city Board of Education, to be entrusted with the management of the entire educa- tional department of the city. Hon. Norton P. Otis, at the time Mayor of Yonkers, made the first appoint- ments. When the gentlemen appointed held their first meeting, July 12, 1881, they divided themselves into five classes, consisting of three members in each elass. The first board was, as a result, constituted as follows ; To serve

For one year, William F. Cochran, Duncan Smith, Matthew H. Ellis.

For two years, John Thurton, Peter Mitchell, Wil- liam H. Thrall.

For three years, Charles Lockwood, Thomas B. Caulfield, Rudolf Eickemeyer.

For four years, Ethelbert Belknap, Rufus Dutton, Frederic Shonnard.

For five years, Michael Mooney, Frederick A. Back, Frederick C. Oakley.

The new act requires the board to appoint a suit- able person, not one of its own members, to act as its clerk and as superintendent of the common schools of the city, to perform the duty of supervision and all other duties, which the board may from time to time direct. Such person is to be a salaried officer.

The first city superintendent appointed by the board August 2, 1881, was Mr. John A. Nichols, who had been principal of Publie school No. 2, from May 9, 1867. The health of Mr. Nichols proving unequal to the burdens of the office, he resigned at the end of the first year, July 12, 1882. Mr. Andrew J. Rickoff, who had been superintendent of the public schools of Cleveland, Ohio, for many years, was next appoint- ed, July 13, 1882. Mr. Rickoff had a responsible ii .- 5

connection with a book publishing house, and find- ing himself overburdened with double cares, resigned the office in September, 1883. Thereupon, on the 9th of October, Mr. Charles E. Gorton, a graduate of the University of Michigan, who had been a teacher in No. 2 for nine years, and its principal for one year, was taken after one year in the principalship of the Central School, in which he was commanding very great respect for his efficiency, and made city super- intendent. He began his work on the 1st of Novem- ber. This election gave universal satisfaction. Mr. Gorton is still city superintendent. Under his care and management, through the wise direction and co- operation of the board, the cducational system of Yonkers is growing. in symmetry, and developing strength adapted to the wants of the city. One of the earliest subjects to which the Consolidated Board gave its attention was the formation of a school of superior grade, in which pupils desiring a higher education, might be taught in studies above the Grammar-School course. They gave to this institution the title, "The Central School." After three years of experience with it, encouraged by the general approbation of it mani- fested by the citizens, they have thought it wise to change its name. They now call it "The High- School." It is justifying its name. The time seems not yet to have arrived for it to have a separate building and ground of its own. But proper accommodations for it must, in the nature of things, soon come.

The courses of study in the Yonkers Public Schools, from the High-School down to the Primaries, includ- ing the courses of the evening schools, are so similar to those of the schools of other cities, that we need not indicate them here. They are detailed in the printed annual reports of the Board of Education.

The board have given all needed care to the prop- erties of the various schools. Besides leasing and fitting up the High-School, they have built a new house for No. 4 on Trenchard Avenue at Mile Square, and organized a new school, known as No. 3, building a fine house for its accommodation on Ham- ilton Avenue. Of course, they have also been care- ful to keep in good order and develop according to need the buildings of the other schools. For their own meetings, they have sccured and adapted a special building on Hudson Street within the High School grounds. An apartment of this building has been fitted for a central public school library. All the formerly separate libraries of the various schools, con- taining together in 1883 about 3400 volumes, have been brought here, and are kept under the care of a lib- rarian employed by the board. New books are being constantly added to the library, and all the books are available to the public as well as to the schools of the city.

The board now employs besides the city superin- tendent, Mr. Charles E. Gorton, the following corps of teachers :

In the High-School, the principal Mr. Edward

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

R. Shaw, a graduate of Lafayette College, with three assistants and a special teacher of Music and Draw- ing. Mr. Shaw began in the High School November 1,1883.

In No. 1, Miss Phebe E. Palmer, principal.

In No. 2. Miss Caroline J. Dresser, principal, with twenty assistants.

In No. 3, Miss Ray A. Campbell, principal, with one assistant.

In No. 4, Miss Jessic F. Bross, principal.

In No. 5, Mrs. E. B. Merritt, principal.

In No. 6, Miss Mary E. Spencer, principal with sixteen assistants.

Besides these teachers, it employs, as has been said, a librarian and a variable number of special teachers for music, drawing, etc. The librarian is Miss Agnes Claxton. The first teacher of music was Profes- sor Alfred Andrews, whose standing as a master and teacher of his art is very high, and the practical results of whose work in the schools has been among the most brilliant features of their annual commence- ments for many years.

The money for the support of the public schools, under the act of 1881, instead of being asked of and voted by the people as before, is now asked of and voted by the Common Council, and included within the general taxes of the city. A report to September 1 is annually made by the Board of Education to the council. In the report made September 1, 1885, the amount of money received for all purposes during the year just then passed, was reported as $66,996.88, and the amount expended for all purposes as $63,607 .- 79. The appropriation asked for the year to end September 1. 1886, was 853,151, of which $27,000 was for teachers' wages. Of course, in both these cases, much of the money solicited was for the new build- ing and furnishing operations in which the board was engaged.

The total number of children on the registers of all the schools for the year ending September 1, 1885, was: boys, 1535; girls, 1358; total, 2893. The average daily attendance was: boys, 949; girls, 825; total, 1774 The evening schools during the same year had a register of 512, and an average attendance of 157. The school census, taken July, 1885, revealed the existence in the city of 8076 children of school age; in other words, between five and twenty-one years old.

The mayor appoints each year three gentlemen to fill theplaces of regularly outgoing members of the Board of Education, and he also fills vacancies ercated through removals, resignations and deaths. Besides the first board, whose names are given above, the following gentlemen have served as members, viz. : Edward Le Moyne, Anthony Imhoff, G. Livingston Morse, Oliver P. Bucl, William B. Edgar, Merwin N. Jones, F. T. Holder, Francis O'Neill, Thomas Ewing, David Hawley, Christian F. Tietjen, Charles Reed, John H. Hubbell.

The present board consists of the following members :

Term expires."

Duncan Smith, President from the beginning .. ....... July 10, 1×87

Frederic Shonnard, Vice-President. July 10, 1890

Anthony Imhoff. July 10, 1×86

Frederick A. Back

.July 10, 18×6

G. Livingston Morse

July 10, 1886

Oliver P. Buel

July 10, 1857

William P. Edgar.

„July 10, 1887

Peter Mitchell

July 10, 18ss

Merwin N. Jones

July 10, 1ss8

Francis O'Neill

July 10, lass

Thomas Ewing.

July 10, 1859

David Hawley

July 10, 18x9

Christian F. Tietjen

July 10, 1x 9

Charles Reed

July 10, 1890

Jolin II. Hubbell

July 10, 1890

One of the oldest public school educators now living in Yonkers, but who has not been connected with the system in this city, is Merritt H. Smith. Mr. Smith was the son of Merritt H. Smith, of Smithtown, Long Island and was born in the city of New York, Novem- ber 27, 1812.

In very early childhood his parents feared that he might remain speechless, as he manifested nosymptoms of speech for two or three years. After that, however, their fears were dispelled, as the gift was imparted to him in unusual measure. He soon regained the time he had lost, having in a very few months after, made such progress as to be able to read the Bible, of which he became quite a student. So retentive was his memory that in a few years he had learned all the New Testament, the Book of Genesis, the Psalms, the Proverbs and many other parts of the Old Testament.

At the age of nine years, being of an active turn of mind and desirons to earn something for himself, Mr. Smith, while other boys spent their leisure time in amusement and play, conceived the idea of manufac- turing and selling small band-boxcs. This soon ripened into a wholesale paying business, the whole of his time between school hours being consnmed in cut- ting out, sewing and papering the boxes, and, with a few samples, visiting the fancy stores and soliciting their custom.

Hle discontinued this business after the 1st of May, 1825, when the New York High School was opened in Crosby Street, and he was chosen by Mr. Nathaniel C. Hart to assist him in the introductory department.

The following year (1826), Mr. Hart was appointed superintendent of the House of Refuge, then located where Madison Square now is, which resulted in the termination of Mr. Smith's labors in the New York High School.

With a good recommendation from his former employer he applied to the Public School Society, and they appointed him, July, 1826, though not yet four- teen years old, an assistant in public school No. 2, located in Henry Street. Being very ambitions, his labors were severe and incessant-frequently obliging him to take the entire charge of the school-then con- taining five hundred pupils. After seven years of ser- vice in school No. 2 he was promoted and trans-

YONKERS.

ferred, in 1833, to school No. 13 in Madison Street, where he remained for several years.

It was while engaged herc that he was run over by a car on the Harlem Railroad, which was then in pro- cess of construction, an accident in which he narrowly escaped losing his life. From school No. 13 he was again transferred to public school No. 7, in Christic Street.

Naturally of a frail constitution his laborious duties, after a few years, began to tell upon his strength, and, finding bis health somewhat impaired, he commenced the study of anatomy and physiology. For some time he attended lectures with the idea of fitting himself for a physician, if neces- sary, or at least to under- stand the best means of restoring and preserving his own health.

Finally his health be- came so poor from dys- pepsia and confinement that he was a mere wreck, and was forced, in the summer of 1845, to resign liis situation as a teacher, after spending twenty years of his early life in the profession. He then gave his entire attention to the study of health, consulting all the distin- guished writers on that subject, both foreign and domestic, which resulted in his adoption of a course of physical training and of rigid dietetic habits, by the aid of which, in a few years, lie regained the health he had lost.

So valuable were the benefits deriv- ed from the course adopted by him in his own person that he felt constrained to recommend it to others, both in private and by lectures in public.

He was one of the original founders of the Rutgers Fire Insurance Company in 1853, and is at present one of only seven of its originators who survive. He has also been a director in the Hamilton Fire Insu- rance Company for the lasttwenty-five years. He has been connected with some of the public improvements in the city of New York, such as the opening of Lexing- ton Avenue, the extension of Canal and the widening of Walker Streets, and also the widening of Whitehall Street, from the Battery to Bowling Green.

M HYSmithe

Mr. Smith was converted in carly life, and, during the past forty years, has held prominent official posi- tions in the Madison Street Church, Cherry Street Church, the Second Avenue Church in Harlem, New York City, and, for the last seventeen years, in the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Yonkers, of which he is now the president of the board of trustees.

Mr. Smith is a gentleman now well along in years. His steady business life and consistent Christian character have been a power for good in the commu- nity of which he has ever been a useful and esteemed citizen.

SECTION XII.

Parish and Private Schools

We bring these into im- mediate connection with the Educational Depart- ment of the city that we may exhibit at one glance all the facilities it affords for the cducation of child- ren and youth.

St. Mary's Parish School. -The city has two parish schools, respectively at- tachments of St. Mary's and St. Joseph's Roman Catholic parishes, whose histories will be included among those of the city churches. These schools had their foundation, no doubt, in the practice of the Roman Catholics of connecting parish schools with their churches, and have gathered strength from their desire to associate special religious training with secu- lar education. We are indebted to Mr. Thomas C. Cornell for a printed pam- phlet . containing ample historical sketches of all the Roman Catho- lic sehools, from which we draw the following statements. The school property now owned by St. Mary's Church, on St. Mary Strect, was purchased in 1852 by Rev. Thomas S. Preston, then pastor of the church. A small school-house, fifteen by twenty- five fect, was at once erected on it. The parish school of the church had been opened in the early spring of that year in the basement of a dwelling- house still standing on the northwest corner of St. Mary and Clinton Streets. The school was begun with less than a dozen boys and girls together.

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

When, later on in the year, it was first opened in the new school-house just mentioned, it did not have more than two dozen, but next year the number was over eighty. In March, 1854, it had ninety-two. Then for a time it was closed.

In February, 1856, the Rev. Edward Lyneh became pastor of the church. Within a fortnight after his settlement, he reopened the school. The girls, at first twenty-two in nuntber, he placed under Miss Jose- phine Dwight in his sacristy, and the boys, about as many, under Mr. James Webb in his small school- house. Very soon after, the basement of the new school-house was fitted up for the girls, who increased to eighty the first year. And later still, carly in 1857, the boys were removed to a basement which, at a cost of about six hundred dollars, had been constructed beneath the church. From that year till 1860, the little school house was oceupied by the girls under the care of the Sisters of Charity.

In 1859 Father Lynch began, and in 1860 completed what had been with him an ambition from the time of his settlement, the erection of a new school-house. This building was fifty by fifty-five feet and two stories high, with a basement and an attic. It was first put to use in September, 1860. Its eost was ten thousand dollars. The girls were at once placed on the first floor under the continued care of Sisters Chrysostom 1 and Winnefred, who had taught them from 1857, and the boys' school was opened in 1861, on the upper floor, under the care of Brother Clementian (now Vice- President of Manhattan College) as director, with three assistants. When possession was taken of the new school-honse, in 1860, the number of pupils, boys and girls, had increased to about three hundred.

Father Lyneh died May 5, 1865, and Rev. Charles T. Slevin at once succeeded him. At his coming, Sisters Ann Cecilia and M. Maurice were eondueting a school of one hundred and fifty-five girls, and the Brothers had one hundred and fifty boys. Father Slevin continued the school as hehad found it. From November 1876 the boys' school was discontinued till September, 1877, when it was rcopened by Rev. Charles R. Corley, the successor of Father Slevin, who had been obliged to be absent from his post by reason of ill health, and who finally died July 18, 1878.

Rev. Mr. Corley, on coming to Yonkers, made the parish schools one of his first carcs. In September, 1877, he reopened the boys, school with Brother El- waren as principal, with three assistants and about two hundred and fifteen children. He found Sister Martina in charge of the girls' department with about three hundred scholars. In September, 1878, she was succeeded by Sister Maria Magdalena, with several

sisters as assistants. The school is now in charge of Sister MI. Arsenia. The boys' school since September, 1882, has been in charge of Brother Denis, with three brothers as assistants.

Mr. Cornell. in his pamphlet. gives the following statistics for the schools for the seven years preced- ing September, 1884 :

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History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. II, Part 12

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co. Number of Pages: 1286

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898,
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1286