USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York : its origin, rise, and progress Vol. III > Part 20
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ORIGIN OF THE FREE SCHOOL SOCIETY.
of age, Daniel D. Tompkins, shortly to be elected governor of the State, and Rufus King, recently returned from his mission to England, are more fully introduced to the reader elsewhere.
It will be observed that the Faculty of Columbia College furnished a strong delegation to aid in the formation of this society - and also that several of its founders were Regents of the University. Ex-Governor John Jay from his Bedford retirement rendered substantial encourage- ment ; and his son, Peter Augustus Jay, contributed largely to the mate- rial for a library. His benefactions embraced much of that curious accumu- lation of periodicals published before the Revolution. He said, " A file of American newspapers is of far more value to our design than all the Byzan- tine historians." John McKesson was a large contributor of Legislative documents, of which were the Journals of the Provincial Congress and Convention, together with the proceedings of the Committee of Safety from May, 1775, to the adoption of the State Constitution in 1777. From the beginning the institution comprehended a rare amount of influ- ence and literary and scientific enthusiasm, and it was sustained and fos- tered by the erudite and the accomplished. Its membership through all its history has represented the best scholarship of the country and the age. Its presidents - Egbert Benson, Gouverneur Morris, De Witt Clin- ton, David Hosack, James Kent, Morgan Lewis, Peter G. Stuyvesant, Peter Augustus Jay, Albert Gallatin, Luther Bradish, Rev. Dr. De Witt, Hamilton Fish, Augustus Schell, and Frederic De Peyster - have been nearly all men of national reputation.
In the mean time the subject of common schools was discussed with renewed earnestness. New York had not hitherto been destitute. 1805. Ever since the Dutch provided schools at the public expense op- portunity had been afforded for universal education ; nearly every church supported a school of its own, and other charity free schools and private schools abounded. There were in the city at this date one hundred and forty-one teachers actively employed. But the population of the city was increasing rapidly, and its enlightened citizens saw the tide of European emigration drifting multitudes to her shores whose children would grow up hopelessly ignorant, easy victims to vice and crime, unless the way was prepared for them to receive the rudiments of knowledge. Public economy and self-preservation, not less than religious duty, urged the work forward. Several of the philanthropic founders of the Historical Society discussed the subject, and finally, through the advice of Thomas Eddy, a meeting was called on the 19th of February, at the house of John Murray, Jr., in Pearl Street. It was resolved to form a society of which the membership fee should be eight dollars; but the subscription list,
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
still preserved, was headed by Mayor De Witt Clinton with a donation of two hundred dollars, and other influential men gave in proportion. John Pintard, the city inspector, was constantly on the alert to advance the enterprise. Clinton, while secretary of the Board of Regents of the University, had imbibed the liberal humanitarian spirit that character- ized New York, and being elected a State senator, in addition to the mayoralty of the city, he was able to bring the subject with uncommon vigor before the Legislature. The result was the institution of a free school, independent of and in nowise interfering with the schools already provided by churches, corporations, and charities. Thirty-seven names were mentioned in the Act of Incorporation, and the society was entitled "the Society for establishing a Free School in the city of New York, for the education of such poor children as do not belong to or are not pro- vided for by any religious society." Thirteen trustees were appointed to manage the affairs of the society, of whoni Mayor Clinton was president, John Murray, Jr., vice-president, Leonard Bleecker treasurer, and Ben- jamin D. Perkins secretary. As soon as the society assumed responsible form, the State rendered moderate pecuniary aid, and the city voted a. modest appropriation. In April, 1806, Colonel Henry Rutgers 1806. generously donated the site for a school-house in Henry Street. The first school was opened the next month in an apartment of a house in Bancker, now Madison, Street, with forty scholars ; the corporation of the city presently offered for temporary accommodation a building adjacent to the almshouse, in which the school flourished two years.
In 1808 the charter was altered and the name of the corporation changed to the " Free School Society of the City of New York." About the same time the tenement occupied proving greatly inadequate to the demand for admission, the city presented to the society an extensive lot of ground in Chathamn Street, where a convenient brick edifice was erected to accommodate five hundred pupils in one room. In the lower story were apartments for the family of the teacher, for the meet- ing of the trustees, and for another school of one hundred and fifty pupils.1
1 The following gentlemen contributed to the erection of this building (upon which was expended some thirteen thousand dollars) either in building materials or otherwise : Abraham Russell, William Wickham, William Tilton, Whitehead Hicks, M. M. Titus, Richard Titus, Joseph Watkins, J. G. Pierson & Brothers, B. W. Rogers & Co., Richard Speaight, Abraham Bussing, Daniel Beach, P. Schermerhorn, Jr., Thomas Stevenson, Thomas Smyth, John McKie, Isaac Sharpless, Jones & Clinch, George Youle, John Youle, Forman Cheeseman, John Rooke, George Lindsay, Jonathan Dixon, J. Sherred, Alexander Campbell, William & G. Post, Joel Davis, Henry Hillman, Ebenezer Bassett, Peter Fenton, William McKenney. - History of the Public School Society, by William Oland Bourne, A. M. ; De Witt Clinton's Address ; His- tory of Public Education in the City of New York, by Thomas Boese ; Reports of the Board of Education ; Public School Documents.
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THE FIRST FREE SCHOOL.
The building was finished and dedicated on the 11th of December, 1809, at which time De Witt Clinton, president of the society from 1805 to 1828, delivered a soul-stirring and memorable address, in which he said, calling attention to the donation of Colonel Rutgers, worth at least twenty-five hundred dollars, and to the condition of one of the deeds which made it necessary to build a school-house thereon before June, 1811- while warmly recommending its accomplishment - " The law from which we derive our corporate existence does not confine us to one seminary, but contemplates the establishment of schools." The benevolence of New York promptly responded to the appeal, and an additional subscription of over thirteen thousand dollars enabled the so- ciety to lay the corner- stone of the second - structure on the 11th of November, 1810. NEW YORK The ceremony was performed by the mu- nificent donor of the site, in presence of a large concourse of peo- ple. The next year two large lots, corner of Hudson and Grove First Free-School Building, erected in 1809. Streets, were given to the society by the vestry of Trinity Church for the erection of a third school building. By 1825 the one free school had multiplied into six, and the following March the Legislature, at the request of the trustees, changed the name of the corporate body to " The Public School Society of the City of New York," the schools by that time having ceased to be charity schools, and henceforward open to all without distinction of sect or circumstances.
The original corporators of what was so soon to become the gigantic public school system of New York City were, Mayor De Witt Clinton, Samuel Osgood, Brockholst Livingston, John Murray, Jr., Jacob Morton, Thomas Eddy, Daniel D. Tompkins, John Pintard, Thomas Pearsall, Rev. Dr. Samuel Miller, Joseph Constant, Robert Bowne, Matthew Clarkson, Archibald Gracie, John McVickar, Charles Wilkes, Henry Ten Broeck, Gilbert Aspinwall, Valentine Seaman, William Johnson, William Coit, Matthew Franklin, Adrian Hegeman, Leonard Bleecker, Benjamin G. Minturn, Thomas Franklin, Samuel Russell, Samuel Doughty, Alex- ander Robertson, Samuel Torbert, John Withington, William Edgar,
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George Turnbull, William Boyd, Jacob Mott, Benjamin Egbert, Thomas Farmer, and Dr. Samuel Latham Mitchill. They were men of different religious persuasions and political parties, and represented nearly every profession, as well as the commercial and social life of the city, em- bracing more solid worth and real and merited distinction than is usually found among an equal number of individuals. The common welfare and the common safety in the broadest catholicity of spirit was the goal. No sect or creed, nationality or name, was to be known in admit- ting scholars. Thus with open-hearted hospitality the metropolis wel- comed the perpetually arriving hosts from other States and countries. As New York had been foremost on this continent in establishing, after the manner of Oxford, a university, to which was intrusted the superin- tendence of all colleges and seminaries of learning within the State, and as her eldest college, Columbia, exacted, it is said, of a candidate for admission more classical and other knowledge than any other college in the United States, it is the more interesting to note the sound policy with which provision was made for the education of the humblest and most destitute within her borders.
Thomas Eddy was a philanthropist of the highest order, and his life was in a certain sense spent for the good of New York. He was the son of a Philadelphia Quaker, but removed to New York at an early age. He was not quite fifty at the time his exertions helped to found the first free school, and for months he spent his leisure moments in going through the lanes and back streets looking up children, and devising ways and means for the success of the undertaking. He had already been for years laboring to change the penal code of the State and establish a new penitentiary system. His doctrine was the prevention of crime by eradi- cating vice ; and at a later period we shall find him prominent in found- ing the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents, and also with De Witt Clinton and others projecting the Bloomingdale Asylum for the insane. It was through his influence, as one of the governors of the New York Hospital, that the first hospital for the insane was erected in 1807; he became deeply interested in the treatment of lunatics, and corresponded with philanthropists in every part of the world upon that delicate subject. He was actively concerned in nearly all the other great charities of his time.
Charles Wilkes was president of the Bank of New York. He was a nephew of the celebrated John Wilkes, the member of Parliament who figured in English politics for a long period, and the brother of John Wilkes, a lawyer residing in Wall Street, whose son Charles, born in 1801, was the famous naval commander, hero of the capture of Mason
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GILBERT ASPINWALL.
and Slidell.1 Alexander Robertson was an educated Scotchman of about thirty-three, who, removing to New York some years before, had developed artistic gifts of superior order; he was recognized as a successful portrait-painter, and became secretary of the Academy of Fine Arts. Matthew Clarkson's name is familiar to the reader. He was called to the presidency of the Bank of New York in 1804, which position he retained until a few days before his death, a period of twenty-one years. He was also the senior vice-president of the American Bible Society. De Witt Clinton said, " Wherever a charitable or public-spirited institution was about to be established Clarkson's presence was considered essential. His sanction became a passport to public approbation." His name is associated with the foundation of nearly all the early meritorious societies of New York, whether intended for education, culture, relief, or protection. Chan- cellor Kent said, " His portrait presents an elevation of moral grandeur 'above all Greek, above all Roman fame.' It belongs to Christianity alone to form and to animate such a character." In private life no man was more beloved for amiable qualities.
Gilbert Aspinwall was a wealthy importer and owner of ships, the prominent representative of a family of princely merchants whose history for upwards of a century is interwoven with that of the city. He lived in a large commodious mansion in Beaver Street, corner of Broadway, afterwards the home of his son-in-law, John Van Buren. He was a man of fine tastes and no inconsiderable learning, of great financial ability, of large benevolence, and of many social attractions. He was one of The Friendly Club, which flourished for many years before and a few years after the death of Washington - until annihilated by political differ- ences. This club included among its members Chancellor Kent, Charles Brockden Brown, Anthony Bleecker, Dr. Edward Miller, John Mc Vickar, William Walton Woolsey, George Muirnson Woolsey, William Dunlap, and Dr. Samuel Latham Mitchill; it met at the houses of its members in rotation every Tuesday evening, and it was the duty of the host to direct conversation through the reading of a passage from some favorite author. At the close of the discussion light refreshments - wine, cake,
1 When the Bank of New York first commenced business in 1784, Charles Wilkes was its principal teller. In 1794 he was made cashier : Gulian Verplanck was then president. He was subsequently elevated to the presidency of the institution, and remained in the director- ship to the end of his life. His son, Hamilton Wilkes, married a daughter of Henry A. Coster. Commander Charles Wilkes married the sister of Professor Renwick. The Slidells were also a New York family, and lived on Broadway. John Slidell was president of the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen in the early part of the century, and from 1810 to 1817, was the first president of the Mechanics' Bank. His son, John Slidell, the future senator, and Commander Wilkes were neighbors and playmates in childhood.
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
etc. - were served without ceremony. Gilbert Aspinwall was the son of Captain John Aspinwall, a vestryman of Trinity Church before the Revolution, whose country-seat was at Flushing ; and his brother, John Aspinwall, was his partner in business.
John Mc Vickar was also an importer and ship-owner. He was a tall, sharp-featured, courtly man, with a kindly eye, a smile of singular sweet- ness, and a mouth and chin indicative of an unbending will. He was rich and respected, able and generous. He was noted for his prominence in building churches, and was constantly aiding the clergy - also unob- trusively assisting deserving young merchants in trouble. It was a common remark in disastrous times among business men, "Well, who is Mc Vickar going to help to-day ?" His wife was Ann, daughter of John Moore, first cousin of Bishop Moore, and the sister of Lady Dongan. He had nine children, to all of whom he gave a liberal education, and the benefit of a tour through Europe. His son John was the accom- plished professor in Columbia College, who married the daughter of the famous Dr. Bard ; another son, Archibald, after graduating from Colum- bia, went to England and finished his education at Cambridge, then married Catharine, daughter of Judge Brockholst Livingston ; still another son, Benjamin, married Isaphane, daughter of Isaac Lawrence, president of the United States Bank in New York; and one of his daughters, Augusta, married Judge William Jay, the youngest son of the chief justice.
Archibald Gracie was another great merchant doing business with all parts of the world. Oliver Wolcott, who knew him intimately, said " he was one of the excellent of the earth - actively liberal, intelligent, seek- ing and rejoicing in occasions to do good." His wealth was enormous, . even after he lost over a million of dollars through the Berlin and Milan decrees. Josiah Quincy was entertained by him at dinner while passing through New York on his journey to Washington in 1805, and described his country-seat on the East River, opposite Hell- Gate, as beautiful beyond description. " A deep, broad, rapid stream glances with an arrowy fleetness by the shore, hurrying along every species of vessel which the extensive country affords. The water, bro- ken by the rocks which lie in the midst of the current into turbu- lent waves, dashing, foaming, and spending their force upon the rocks, and the various courses every vessel has to shape in order to escape from the dangers of the famous pass, present a constant change and novelty in this enchanting scene. The shores of Long Island, full of cultivated prospects and interspersed with elegant country-seats, bound the distant view. The mansion is elegant, in the modern style, and the grounds laid out with taste in gardens." Among the other guests
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ARCHIBALD GRACIE.
at Mr. Gracie's dinner-table on this occasion were, Oliver Wolcott, who resided in the city for a dozen or more years after he retired from the Treasury, becoming the first president of the Merchants' Bank, Judge Pendleton, Hamilton's second in the fatal duel, and Dr. Hosack, who subsequently married the widow of the Holland merchant, Henry A. Coster, who was then residing at his country-seat on the East River, near the foot of Thirtieth Street.1
Of Archibald Gracie, whose beautiful ships and well-known red and white private signal were familiar in every sea, no more endearing memory exists
Residence of Archibald Gracie. [On East River at Horn's Hook, or Gracie's Point - foot of Eighty-ninth Street.]
than that of his intelligent and far-reaching sympathy in the free-school enterprise. His manliness and liberality are recorded in imperishable colors. He said ignorance was the cause as well as the effect of bad governments, and the rational powers must first be cultivated if we would entertain just ideas of the obligations of morality or the excellences of religion. The fundamental error of Europe was, in his opinion, the in- famous neglect of the education of her poor. Magnificent colleges and universities, dedicated to literature, were all very well, but it was a car- dinal mistake to withhold appropriations for diffusing knowledge among the lower classes. He gave a strong impulse to the movement from which millions have already reaped benefits beyond price. Mrs. Gracie was an educated lady of rare culture, and their domestic life was of the purest, sweetest, and most charming character. She was Esther Rogers, sister of
1 The first wife of Dr. Hosack was the sister of Thomas Eddy the philanthropist.
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
the distinguished merchant brothers, Fitch, Henry, Moses, and Nehemiah Rogers, three of whom founded three great mercantile houses in the city. Her sons were men of sterling character, and her daughters were among the best informed and most attractive ladies in New York, two of whom married sons of Hon. Rufus King, and a third married Hon. William Beach Lawrence.
Between Gracie's Point - which the traveler on the East River may now recognize by an enormous tree towering above the bluff, nearly or quite two centuries old - and the city were at that date numerous country-places and fine grounds of special historic interest, of which the Beekman mansion near Fifty-first Street, and the Kip mansion on the line of Thirty-fifth Street, have been illustrated in the earlier pages of this work.1 Between these two, overlooking Turtle Bay near Forty- first Street, stood the summer resi- dence of Francis Bayard Winthrop, a descendant of Governor Win- throp, who mar- ried the daughter of Moses Rogers, and after her death, Elizabeth, daugh- terof William Wal- ton Woolsey.2 In architectural ap- The Coster Mansion. [On East River, near Thirtieth Street ; purchased by Anson G. Phelps in 1835.] pearance the Win- throp mansion was similar to that of the Beekmans, except that it was flanked by two octagon wings. At a more modern period it was known as the Cutting homestead. The Coster mansion was more of the Grecian type of architecture, then much in vogue upon Manhattan Island.3 It was finely shaded, and a smooth-cut lawn extended to the river's edge.
1 See Vol. I. 159, 569. The residences of Peter Gerard Stuyvesant and his brother Nicholas Stuyvesant are illustrated in Vol. I. 217.
2 The wife of Moses Rogers was Sarah, sister of William Walton Woolsey, and of Mary, the wife of President Timothy Dwight of Yale College. William Walton Woolsey's wife was Elizabeth, sister of President Dwight, and granddaughter of President Edwards. He was a great sugar refiner and merchant, and held many public offices and trusts. His son, Theodore Dwight Woolsey, born in New York in 1801, was President of Yale College from 1846 to 1871.
8 Henry A. Coster owned a handsome residence also in Chambers Street. His wealth and
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PHILANTHROPIC LADIES.
In the mean time, while the foundation was being laid for the golden records of the Free School Society, a number of the cultivated and influen- tial ladies of New York originated a scheme of usefulness similar to that of the industrial schools of a later date, except that the teaching was gratuitous. Mrs. Isabella Graham, her daughter, Mrs. Joanna Bethune, mother of Rev. Dr. George Washington Bethune, the celebrated divine, author, and poet, and Mrs. Sarah Hoffman were foremost in this endeavor to throw light into the habitations of the destitute. A meeting was called February 11, 1804, and twenty-nine ladies assembled in the parlors of Josiah Ogden Hoffman. It was resolved to visit the poor districts personally, in pairs for mutual protection, and devote certain specified hours of the day to the work of instruction. As it was before the estab- lishment of Sabbath schools in the city, and while the pressing need of a non-sectarian free school was agitating the community, the self-imposed duties of these philanthropists may be easily conjectured.
In the course of two following years other ladies of commanding social position joined the charitable coterie, among whom was Mrs. John Mc Vickar, Mrs. Coster, and the wife of Major Fairlie. The question of providing for the orphan children of deceased widows was again and again discussed, and it was finally decided to appeal to the benevolent public. A meeting was called on the 15th of March, 1806, when the New York 1806. Orphan Asylum Society was organized, with Mrs. Sarah Hoffman first directress, Mrs. Alexander Hamilton second directress, Mrs. Bethune treasurer, and ten prominent ladies constituting a board of managers. A two-story frame house in Greenwich village was hired, and a few orphans gathered at once into the fold. The ladies adopted from the beginning, as a principle of management, never to refuse an orphan child brought to them for protection, whether they had a dollar in the treasury or not, from which they never swerved. Rev. Dr. Bethune wrote: "I have often heard my mother say that in any time of need a few words stating that the funds of the society needed replenishing, thrown into a news- paper, was sure to bring in donations equal to the need ; more frequently the money came in before the appeal was made."
that of his brother, John G. Coster, added materially to the prosperity of New York. They imported all kinds of goods, and were constantly buying and shipping to Europe all kinds of American produce. Both brothers were directors in the chief money corporations of the period, such as the Manhattan Bank, the Merchants' Bank - of which John G. Coster was elected president to succeed Henry Remsen, in 1826 - and the two insurance companies, the Phoenix and the Globe ; and they were large contributors to the humane institutions rapidly spring- ing into existence. One of the daughters of Henry A. Coster married William Laight, another married the son of Charles Wilkes. John G. Coster built a splendid granite double residence above Canal Street on Broadway, about 1833, which was considered palatial in its day. His children intermarried with the Primes, De Lanceys, and other notable families.
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It soon became evident that a building was indispensable, and an acre of ground was purchased in Bank Street, where a plain structure fifty feet square was erected at a cost of some twenty-five thousand dollars. Mrs. Bethune managed the finances with great skill, pledging her hus- band's credit for thousands of dollars rather than that the building should be delayed. Several of the ladies advanced money from their own well- filled purses. The debt that remained at the completion of the building was soon canceled by donations and legacies; and the growth of the city increased the value of the property in such rapid ratio, that in 1840 it was comparatively easy to replace the original by the noble edifice which now stands in the midst of ten acres of ground on the shore of the Hudson at Seventy-fourth Street. In 1817 Mrs. Hoffman resigned her place at the head of the institution, and was succeeded by Mrs. Hamilton, still beautiful in her ripening age, brilliant in conversation, and whose chief happiness was found in a religious life devoted to active charities. An English writer in 1807 enumerates thirty-one benevolent institu-
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