USA > New York > Oneida County > Utica > Memorial history of Utica, N.Y. : from its settlement to the present time > Part 43
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456
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
Edwin B. Russ was appointed a teacher in the English department. In June, 1849, Mr. Spencer was allowed to employ a substitute for a period, when the number of pupils seems to have run down to about thirty- five. In September, 1850, partly from discouragement and prin- cipally from ill health, he resigned his place as principal and Ellis H. Roberts, a graduate of Yale College, was chosen to succeed him. Under Mr. Spencer the academy had the reputation of a thorough classical school. He was devoted to it and possessed the requisite ambition, per- severance, and energy for a valuable teacher had his health seconded and sustained him. He was an enthusiast on the subject of education, to which he had designed to devote his life. Mr. Roberts had not in- tended to be a teacher professionally, and within a year he entered upon more congenial employment. It was in 185 1 that the trustees determined to sell to the county for a court house the John street front of the academy, about 100 feet by 115, on condition, in addition to a pecuniary consid- eration, that the release of the remainder should be obtained from the original grantors and from the city, so that it might be free of all ease- ments for courts and public meetings, which was finally consummated. Mr. Roberts's place was for a short time occupied in turn by a Mr. Newcomb and a Mr. Kenget.
In April, 1852, a committee of the trustees was appointed to confer with the school commissioners-a board now in charge of the common schools -- respecting some arrangement by which the office of superin- tendent of schools and of principal of the academy might be united ; and in August a plan for a connection was suggested by the school com- missioners, to which the trustees responded by the appointment of a committee with full power to complete the union. And this was the last act of the trustees under the old charter. In May, 1853, an act of the legislature provided for an arrangement by which the school com- missioners became the trustees of the academy, preserving the venerable charter and binding its vitality to that of the city itself, and converting an old close corporation into one controllable by a popular vote. The new organization was accomplished in February, 1854, by the choice of Edmund A. Wetmore, chairman of the school commissioners, as presi- dent, and Daniel S. Heffron, superintendent of the schools, as secretary.
A few more words will suffice for the history of the Utica Academy,
457
FIRST FREE SCHOOL.
for though it has continued and for the most part in a highly prosper- ous state to the present time it is no longer a wholly independent in- stitution, but is linked with the other public schools of the city in one graded system of which the academy is the head. Under this now régime Mr. Weld, a graduate of Brown University, was selected for prin- cipal with three female teachers for assistants. By subscriptions and by appropriations made by the Regents of the University the school apparatus was increased to the value of nearly $800. The standard of education was high, and pupils went to college with qualifiations ex- ceeding the collegiate standard. In December, 1857, Mr. Weld resigned and the present principal, George C. Sawyer, a graduate of Harvard, succeeded him. For now thirty-four years he has been at the head of the crowning school of our system.
We come next to consider the first free school of the place. The first act of the legislature in relation to the schools of Utica was passed April 7, 1817. That act applied "all school moneys coming to the said village under the school laws to the support of a free school for the education of such poor children as were entitled to a gratuitous educa- tion." And by section 28 "all the property of the twelfth district of Whitestown [which then included Utica] was vested in the trustees of the village of Utica for said free schools." The proceedings of the trustees for the year 1817 relate that in pursuance of their intention to establish a free public school they erected a building and engaged Igna- tius Thompson, "a teacher in Utica," to keep the school for three months, from the first Monday in December, at $40 per month. Fifty dollars were appropriated for the repair and fuel of the school Public notice was given, and children were admitted on the presentation of a ticket signed by one of the trustees. Shortly after the expiration of this engagement it was resolved, at a special meeting, that Mr. Thomp- son have the use of the school-house for two quarters, free of rent, pro- vided he teach the scholars for $2 per quarter each. But two days later, at a regular and fuller meeting of the board, it was determined, without any cause that appears on the record, that the school-house be shut up, and not opened, either for school-keeping or religious meet- ings, until further order of the board. This two-story building after- ward known as the Lancaster school stood upon the south side of
58
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
Catharine, street nearly opposite Franklin, its upper story being used by the Masons. During the following year it was still continued under the direction of Mr. Thompson. But in 1819 it was to be conducted on the Lancaster system agreeably to a proposition made the trustees by Mr. l'Amoureux. In September he published a report of his school
for the first term. He reports 213 as having been admitted and 203 now remaining in the school. Of these 26 read in the New Testament, 28 are learning to read simple stories on cards, 130 are making rapid improvement in spelling and reading words of two to eight syllables, and 19 are learning to make the alphabet in sand ; 60 have learned to write a tolerable hand and 80 are learning to write words of from one to three letters ; 32 are learning to cypher, seven of whom are nearly masters of the first four rules of arithmetic; and a class in geography is now com- mitting the first principles.
In 1822 Andrew l'Amoureux was still the teacher, but in 1824 his place is occupied by Roswell Holcomb, one of the early teachers of the Main street school-house, his salary being equivalent to $350 a year and $65 being allowed for fuel and repairs. We next read that in 1825 the scholars were obliged to pay three shillings each term, which sum was to be applied toward defraying the expenses of the teachers, the sum received from the school fund not being adequate for the purpose. Rev. Joseph Carter became principal in 1828 and the school was re- organ- ized. The appropriations made to it amounted to about $600. There were then about 150 pupils and the school was represented as flourish - ing. Mr. Carter was succeeded by Eliasaph Dorchester, assisted by Miss Susan Wright in the female department ; he presided for some years. A legislative act was passed in 1830 giving to the trustees of the village power to establish schools at their pleasure and distribute the public money as to them shall seem proper, and in April of the fol- lowing year a committee of the trustees was appointed to sell the free school lot on Catharine street and buy another suitable for common school and fire purposes. The school was next kept in the session-room of the Second Presbyterian Church on the corner of Charlotte and Eliz- abeth streets. The same year (1831) a school district was established in the eastern part of the village and a school located on the corner of East and Minden streets. A third public school was added in 1834 with Abraham Yates as principal.
459
INFANT SCHOOLS- PRIVATE ONES.
The foregoing is a very brief and inadequate description of the free schools of an early date. No statistics exist showing their actual con- dition, nor are there any records prior to the time when they came un- der the control of the Board of School Commissioners in 1842. A further consideration is therefore deferred.
Two other schools of a public nature may be mentioned here. In April, 1828, an infant society was organized with four directors and twenty four managers, whose object was to give care and instruction to the infant poor of the place of eighteen months to two years of age, to relieve their parents during the day, and to screen their children from such evil influences as they might encounter from without. In fact the institution resembled what has been known in more recent times as a creche. It relied upon public liberality for its support. Mrs. Moses Bagg was the first directress and Mrs. Emma R. Crowley the precept- ress. In 1829 a .similar school, termed the Pattern Infant School, was started in another locality under the patronage of Jesse W. Doolittle. Both of them received in 1832 an appropriation of $92 each from the council.
While thus treating of public schools it must not be presumed that there were no private ones at this era. The latter were in fact the most numerous. The directory of 1829 gives a list of thirty-three teachers who were then ministering to educational wants. Indeed, when regard is had to the respective populations of that time and the present, they were more abundant than they now are. The excellence of our public schools of the present day has much diminished the need of private ones. Let us briefly notice a few of these latter, omitting for the pres- ent those designed for ladies only. Ambrose Kasson, who in 1819 was an assistant in the academy, opened shortly after a school of his own on Whitesboro street corner of Division. He ranked high as an in- structor and received large patronage. During a part of his career he had as a colleague Mrs. S. Gridley. Cotemporaneously with him as a teacher was Royal West, with whom the trustees arranged for the pub- lic building next to Trinity. William Sparrow opened a classical school of his own, but soon entered the academy as its principal. In 1824 Elisha Harrington, compiler of the earlier directories, gave himself to teaching and was aided therein by his sister.
460
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
The next in order was the Utica High School, known afterward as the Utica Gymnasium. This was a school of considerable note throughout the State, and the only boarding school for boys that ever continued for much length of time in Utica. It was founded in 1827 and flourished about eight years. Its founder and princi- pal was Charles Bartlett, who was a native of Charlton, Saratoga County, a graduate of Union College, and a Presbyterian. He had previously for a short time conducted a select school on Washi- ington street a little above Fayette. This school he gave up to Isaac Wilmarth before starting the high school. For the latter purpo e he leased the house and farm at the lower end of Broad street which had belonged to Dr. Solomon Wolcott. The farm comprised from sixty to eighty acres and was taken in charge by Joseph Bartlett, brother of Charles, and as the latter remained some years unmarried he was aided in the domestic part of the school by the family of his brother-in-law, Jeremiah Waring, and next by his own brother, Dudley. While these families occupied a part of the building the rest of it was given up to dormitories, dining hall, recitation-rooms, etc. Here the session was begun in the autumn of 1827. The annual expense to each pupil, was $200 (afterward reduced to $150). Mr. Bartlett did not confine him- self to any special branch of study, teaching several English ones as well as the rudiments of Latin and Greek. Though not a profound scholar he taught earnestly and was a strict disciplinarian. The pupils were also taught horseback riding, swimming, gardening, were exercised in gymnastics, and listened to lectures in chemistry, botany, mineralogy, etc., from the teachers in this department, and made frequent excursions into the surrounding country in pursuit of knowledge in some of these branches. Careful attention was given to morals and deportment ; the pupils were required to attend church on Sunday and were instructed in the Scriptures on Sunday evening. Among the teachers who were prominent in this school besides the principal were Fay Edgerton, a graduate of the Polytechnic School at Troy; Dr. Asa Gray, the distin- guished botanist ; Rev. John P. Spinner, a native of Germany, father of the late Francis E. Spinner, United States treasurer, who taught lan- guages; Uridge Whiffen; Silas Kingsley ; and George F. Comstock, late judge of the Court of Appeals of New York and still living in Syra-
461
UTICA HIGH SCHOOL.
cuse. A new school-house was erected on the further side of the play- ground, three stories in height, with entrances on each side to the lower rooms and stairways leading to those above. The lower rooms were used by the boys when not on duty in school and for shelter in bad weather. The story above contained the school-room and four recita- tion rooms, while the third story was one large dormitory. The later built school-house was still more unique in character and stood farther eastward than the former ones. It was of brick, two stories high, but with only one room and semi-circular in form, with its flat side and entrances toward the street. Around the inside of the whole half circle were ranged two series of stalls, one above the other, and wide enough for a single desk in each. Thus each pupil was unable to communicate with his neighbor and was in plain view of his teacher, who sat opposite in the center of the circle. There was an annual attendance at the school of upwards of forty, the larger number of whom were from Utica. Among those who were more or less distinguished were the two eminent professors of Yale College, James D. Dana, the naturalist, and S. Wells Williams, the Chinese scholar ; the late Alexander S. Johnson, judge of the Court of Appeals of this State and afterward circuit judge of the United States; the late Morris S. Miller, brevet brigadier- general U. S. A., and his brother, the late John B. Miller; and others. John F. Seymour, Edward S. Brayton, besides others now living were like- wise pupils.
A fire which in the year 1835 destroyed the second of the school- houses caused the disruption of the establishment, and so far embar- rassed the principal that he abandoned the field. He removed to Poughkeepsie and there kept a successful school until his death.
Another much prized school, established two years later than Mr. Bartlett's, was the Classical and Commercial Lyceum of Messrs. Philips & Kingsley. But as Mr. Philips was soon succeeded by Lewis Bailey, and as the latter was ere long left alone in charge, it is best known as his school, he continuing it until about 1840. Mr. Kingsley, who taught the English branches, was the same who taught for Mr. Bartlett. He removed to Buffalo and there followed with success the same vocation. Lewis Bailey was a graduate of a New England college and was skilled as a teacher. The school was situated on the east side of Wash-
462
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
ington street between Whitesboro and Liberty. It enjoyed the pat- ronage of many of our best citizens and trained many of their sons. It ceased about 1839-40, and Mr. Bailey, after a temporary absence, came back and in company with the late John B. Wells had a part in the founding of the well known mercantile house of the latter. After- ward alone he remained in the dry goods trade until near his death, September 20, 1852. Another classical and commercial school was begun in 1832 by John Williams, who conducted it for a period of forty-one years, terminating with his death in 1873. Its location was on Carnahan street (now Blandina). The same year the Catholics had a school on John street above Bleecker, which was mostly maintained by private subscription. A little later, about 1835-38, William Barrett presided over a school on Genesee street a few doors below Carnahan. He stud- ied law and located in Little Falls. Two of the best remembered dames' schools of those days were those of Miss Dickens and Miss Bowen, where were upwardly inclined many of the twigs which began their sprouting from 1820 to 1830 or thereabouts, the former having in care the shoots of Whitesboro street and vicinity, the latter those of John, Broad, etc.
In thus glancing at some of the private educational enterprises of that time, which were either designed wholly for boys or were mixed in their character, I have not noted the institutions intended for young ladies ex- clusively. The very earliest of the latter kind was doubtless that of Solo- mon P. Goodrich, a dealer in books, a trustee and a man of influence in the Presbyterian Church. Of his school nothing is now remembered ex- cept that one day in 1806 he kindly dismissed his scholars that they might witness the progress of the sun's eclipse of that year. About 1818 a young ladies' school was opened by Montgomery R. Bartlett, which at once met with favor among the best families of the town. Mr. Bart- lett, who was a native of New Hampshire, was in some departments an accomplished scholar, being the author of an astronomy, a map of the heavens, and an edition of Murray's English Reader with definitions of inflection and emphasis and rules for reading verse. He was rather severe in discipline and did not teach long, but lived in Utica until about I'830.
A school of 1822 was memorable for the mannered rules of fashion
463
THE WOODBRIDGE AND EVERTS SCHOOLS.
which were there imparted. It was kept by Madam Despard on Broad street near Genesee. Not so skilled in grounding her pupils in the ele- ments of English scholarship she could teach them French and music as well as how to enter a parlor, how to receive, and how to deport themselves au salon. But the time was not yet propitious for a fashion- able boarding school and so its mistress went elsewhere.
A veteran teacher, one who was a pioneer in the business of conduct- ing young ladies' schools, and who established one in Utica in 1824, was Rev. William Woodbridge, who was born September 14, 1755, and was consequently now in his seventieth year. In the winter of 1779- 80, being then in his senior year, he taught a young ladies' school in New Haven County. It was then quite a novel experiment, but it suc - ceeded and was soon followed by others. He afterward taught in Phillips Academy and elsewhere before coming to this place as well as afterward; in all about fifty-six years. He wrote for the An- nals of Education, conducted by his son, Rev. William C. Woodbridge, and for other periodicals. In 1799 he was president of an association formed at Middletown, Conn., for the improvement of common schools, which is believed to have been the first of the kind that was ever formed in the United States. In Utica Mr. Woodbridge was well received, his school containing many of the daughters of the leading families of the place. It was situated on the northwest corner of John and Catharine streets, on the site of Reynolds's shoe factory.
A school wherein the English branches were not neglected while the ornamental ones received also a due share of attention was that of Mr. and Mrs. Charles C. Everts, which was begun in 1826. It was on Whitesboro street opposite the first site of the Bank of Utica, and was generally favored by those who had daughters to be educated. Music and perhaps some other accomplishments were imparted by Mrs. Everts, the remainder by her husband and their three assistants. Mr. and Mrs. Everts remained here until 1840, though it does not appear that the school was continued so long. In the York House, nearly opposite, there established themselves in 1828 Rev. Samuel Whittlesee and wife. They had had experience elsewhere and were now prepared to accom- modate fifty boarders. Their terms were $25 per year for the English studies with extra payment for Latin, French, music, drawing, or paint-
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
ing, etc., and $2 per week for board. They had four assistants. In 1833 their school was on the corner of Genesee and Pearl, and there they were busy in editing the Mother's Magazine. Their successor in the York House was Samuel H. McLauren, who termed his venture the Female Institute. He kept the institute but a single year and yielded it to Mr. and Mrs. H. Johnson. The terms and methods of the latter were nearly the same as those of the former, except that no additional cost was asked for the study of French, which was to be the language of the family.
But the people of Utica felt at this time the need of a place for the training of their daughters which should be as good as the academy had been for their sons, which should do away with the necessity of sending their daughters away to be educated as many had been, and should at a more moderate cost offer advantages for instruction, not only to residents of the city, but to those of the country around. Men of in- fluence were enlisted in the accomplishment of the object. By them the public were aroused to its importance, a stock company was formed, without expectation, however, of pecuniary gain, and the means were se- cured. This institution was chartered April 28, 1837. The first trus- tees named in the charter were John H. Ostrom, Nicholas Devereux, Horatio Seymour, C. A. Mann, Joshua A. Spencer, S. D. Childs, T. S. Faxton, John C. Devereux, Alrick Hubbell, T. E. Clark, T. H. Hub- bard, Theodore Pomeroy, A. Munson, B. F. Cooper, Chester Griswold, John Williams, Horace Butler, Charles P. Kirkland, S. P. Lyman, Holmes Hutchinson, and Henry White. The same year four lots lying between Washington street and Broadway, with the buildings upon them, were purchased at a cost of $6,300. The school was first opened in the building known as the United States Hotel, corner of Genesee and Pearl streets, where it was continued until the new building was finished. The number of students in December, 1838, was 168. . In 1838-39 an academy building of brick, three stories, 50 by 150 feet in dimensions, was erected, the corner-stone having been laid with proper ceremonies June 20, 1838. The first principal was Miss Urania E. Sheldon, who continued until August, 1842, when Rev. James Nichols and wife succeeded her and remained until June, 1844, when they retired and were succeeded by Miss Jane E. Kelly, who continued to fill the position until 1865.
465
1
UTICA FEMALE ACADEMY.
The fitness of Miss Sheldon to conduct a seminary had been shown as the head of one in Schenectady. To this of Utica she at once gave as great success. In the household department she was aided by her sister Cynthia, and in that of instruction, besides others, by two pupils she brought with her, who became afterward her earliest successors. She was herself drawn away from teaching by her marriage to Rev. Dr. Eliphalett Nott, president of Union College. Her first brief successor has been known to her credit in similar service in Rochester. On the more lasting and meritorious work of Miss Kelly it seems needless to enlarge. Her capacity as a moral as well as intellectual Mentor, her skill and tact in the management of this numerously attended institu- tion, the able corps of teachers she from time to time collected to her assistance, are familiar not solely to this community, but are lauded by her scattered pupils the whole country over. After her retirement she continued to live in the city until her death. One of her sisters, chief dependence of the house and its inmates, still survives.
The building was burned on the 27th of March, 1865. The present elegant and substantial building was erected on the same ground about 1869-70 at a cost of $75,000. It is 60 by 150 feet in dimensions, three stories and basement, and constructed of brick with roof laid in varie- gated slates. It is one of the finest structures in the State, and justly a source of pride to the citizens of Utica, even among the many noble educational and charitable institutions which ornament the city. More ground has since been added on the north and on the south of its rear. The school was interrupted from 1865 to 1871, in which latter year Mrs. E. F. Hammill, of Brooklyn, leased the building for three years and opened school. At the end of the three years she leased it again for one year and continued to the summer of 1875, when she was succeeded by the present principal, Mrs. J. G. C. Piatt. At the present time the school employs about fifteen teachers in the various departments, and has from thirty to forty regular boarders and from eighty to ninety day scholars. Formerly known as the seminary, or by its official title as the Utica Female Academy, it is now " Mrs. Piatt's School," though still owned by the stockholders and controlled by the trustees whom they annually elect. Reports of its condition are required by the Regents, though Regents' examinations are no longer made and no funds are obtained from the literature fund. 59
466
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
Let us now return to the narrative of the public schools and consider them from the time of the appointment of a school board, which board united the academy with the other public schools, incorporating them into one common system and effected important improvements in their modes of discipline and management. About the year 1843 the state of the common schools of the city began to excite public attention. By virtue of a legislative act of that year demanded by strong popular feel- ing they were put under the charge of six commissioners, eligible from year to year in successions of two each year. As it was conceded from the first that the schools should not be under any partisan domination the two leading political parties concurred in establishing a precedent that each of them should name one candidate every year, and the two thus nominated should be indiscriminately voted for. This precedent, which has no legeal sanction to enforce it, has in no case been positively disturbed. The commissioners elected at the charter election in 1843 were Rudolph Snyder, Hiram Denio, Spencer Kellogg, Robert T. Hallock, Francis Kernan, and James Watson Williams. To an address delivered by Mr. Williams before the friends of the academy in 1868 I am indebted for the particulars of the foregoing history of the institution. Their first act was to institute a thorough and faithful examination of the existing schools, which resulted in showing a great lack of system, a looseness of discipline, a sad deficiency of teaching power and talent, a miserable niggardliness of compensation, and a perversion and misapplication of funds that proved the necessity of some radical change, or a complete abandonment of common education to private enterprise and liberality. The city owned but three indifferent school buildings and hired three or four, more indifferent still, and there were about 1, 100 children at- tending them. The commissioners immediately commenced a thor- ough re- organization; they repaired and improved the old school build- ings and soon commenced the erection of larger and more convenient ones ; they adopted a graded system extending from the primary depart- ment up through the ward schools and the advanced school to the acad- emy; and they put in use a uniformity of text books. In 1850 the board appointed Daniel S. Heffron superintendent of schools. Mr. Heff- ron possessed in an eminent degree a knowledge of school organization and discipline, and for over seventeen years he labored earnestly and
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