Our County and Its People: A Descriptive Work on Erie County, New York (Volume 1), Part 71

Author: Truman C. White
Publication date: 1898
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1017

USA > New York > Erie County > Our County and Its People: A Descriptive Work on Erie County, New York (Volume 1) > Part 71

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This society also published an extended code of instructions for its teachers, covering every possible contingency and phase of their calling.

A grammar school was opened at New York in 1702 and continued to 1709. At about that time attempts were inaugurated to found a college in this province. In 1773 there was established under an act of the General Assembly "a public school to teach Latin, Greek and Mathematics in the city of New York."

Most of the school teachers prior to the Revolution were men. Down to that time less attention was given to the education of women than of men, and many young women, possessed of brilliant natural talents, were taught only to read and write and a few simple accomplishments. These unjust conditions have happily all passed away. With the close of the Revolutionary war and under the civilizing influence of freedom, the cause of education was rapidly advanced. The Regents of the University of the State of New York were incorporated in 1784 (reor- ganized 1787) and in their report of 1793 they called attention to the benefits likely to accrue from the establishment of more schools in various parts of the State. "The mode of accomplishing this object," said the report, " we respectfully submit to the wisdom of the Legisla- ture." At the opening of the session of 1795 Governor Clinton thus alludes to this subject in his message:

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While it is evident that the general establishment and liberal endowment of acad- emies are highly to be commended, and are attended with the most beneficial con- sequences, yet it cannot be denied that they are principally confined to the children of the opulent, and that a great portion of the community is excluded from their immediate advantages. The establishment of common schools throughout the State is happily calculated to remedy this inconvenience, and will therefore engage your'early and decided consideration.

These are the first steps taken directly toward the establishment of the common school system of the State. On the 11th of January, 1795, the Assembly appointed a committee of six to consider the school sub- ject, and on February 19 they reported "An Act for the Encourage- ment of Schools," which became a law on the 9th of April. This act appropriated $50,000 annually for five years for the general support of common schools, which sum was at first apportioned to the several counties according to their representation in the Legislature; later it was apportioned according to the number of electors for member of assembly, and to the several towns according to the number of taxable inhabitants. The act provided for the election of not less than three nor more than seven commissioners in each town, who shall have super- vision of the schools of each town. The inhabitants in the different sections of the towns were authorized to meet for the purpose of pro- curing "good and sufficient schoolmasters, and for erecting and main- taining school houses in such and so many parts of the town where they may reside, as shall be most convenient," and to appoint two or more trustees, whose duties were defined by the act. The public money paid to each district was to be apportioned by the commissioners according to the number of days of instruction given in each of the schools. Pro- vision was made also for annual returns from all districts and counties.

Lotteries were early instituted by the State for the support of schools, first in 1799, when $100,000 was to be raised, $12,500 of which was to go to academies and the remainder to common schools.

On the 2d of April, 1805, an act was passed, providing that the net proceeds of the sale of 500,000 acres of unappropriated State lands should be made a permanent fund for the support of schools, the avails to be invested until the interest amounted to $50,000, when an annual distribution of that amount should be' made. By February, 1807, re. ceipts for the school fund in the treasury had reached $151, 115.69.

In 1811 a law was enacted authorizing the governor to appoint five commissioners to report a system for the organization of the common schools. The commission consisted of Jedediah Peck, John Murray, jr.,

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Samuel Russell, Roger Skinner and Samuel Macomb. Their report, made February 14, 1812, was accompanied by a draft of a bill embody- ing the main features of the common school system as it existed until 1838. One feature of the bill was, that each county should raise by tax an amount equal to that apportioned by the State. Following is a brief outline of the system :

That the several towns in the State be divided into school districts, three commis- sioners elected by the citizens qualified to vote for town officers: that three trustees be elected in each district, to whom shall be confided the care and superintendence of the school to be established therein ; that the interest of the school fund be divided among the different counties and towns, according to their respective population, as ascertained by the successive censuses of the United States; that the proportions re- ceived by the respective towns be subdivided, according to the number of children in each, between the ages of five and fifteen years; that each town raise, annually, so much money as it shall have received from the school fund; that the gross amount of moneys received from the State and raised by the towns be appropriated exclu- sively to the payment of teachers; and the whole system be placed under the super- intendence of an officer appointed by the Council of Appointment.

Gideon Hawley was made the first superintendent of common schools and held the office from 1813 to 1821. In the first report (1814) he called attention to the fifth section of the law under which it was a possibility that a single town in a county might receive the whole of the public money for that county; and to other provisions giving each town the choice of complying with the law and receiving its benefits and bearing its burdens, or of refusing such compliance. Under these provisions many towns had refused compliance with the act, to the great detriment of the system. The superintendent suggested that it be made obligatory upon the towns to comply with the act, and also on the Board of Supervisors to levy on the respective towns a sum equal to the sum "which shall be apportioned to such towns out of the public money to be distributed." These suggestions were promptly carried out by the amendments to the act.

The founding of this school system was an educational movement of the greatest importance and its benefits became at once apparent. In his second report (1815) Mr. Hawley said:

But the great benefit of the act does not lie in any pecuniary aid which it may afford. It consists in securing the establishment of common schools wherever they are necessary ; in organizing them on a suitable and permanent foundation ; and in guarding them against the admission of unqualified teachers.

In his sixth annual report the superintendent renewed his recom- mendation, before made, for a revision and consolidation of the existing

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school laws. On the 19th of April, 1819, accordingly, the Legislature re-enacted the " act for the support of the common schools," making the various amendments suggested by Mr. Hawley. To him is given the honor and credit of having done more than any other person in the founding of the common school system in this State. John Van Ness Yates was secretary of state and superintendent ex officio of common schools from 1821 to 1826, the separate office of superintendent of schools having been abolished by the constitution of 1821. The con- stitution provided, also, "the proceeds of all lands thereafter to be · sold, belonging to the State, with the exception of such as might be reserved for the public use or ceded to the United States, together with the existing school fund, were declared to constitute a perpetual fund, the interest of which should be inviolably appropriated and applied to the support of the common schools."

Azariah C. Flagg held the office of secretary of state and superin- tendent of schools from 1826 to 1833, and was succeeded by John A. Dix (1833-39), during which period great improvements were made in the details of the school system. In 1827 the sum annually distributed to various districts was increased to $100,000; in 1837 it was $110,000. On the 13th of April, 1835, an act was passed which laid the founda- tion of district school libraries; it authorized the taxable inhabitants of each district to impose a tax of not more than $20 the first year, and $10 each succeeding year, for the purchase of a district library. Under this act libraries were established in very many districts of the State and the result and benefit is beyond estimate.

In 1838 $160,000 were added from the annual revenue of the United States deposit fund to the amount to be apportioned among the various school districts. In the following year the number of school districts in the State was 10,583. The increase in the number of districts from time to time is shown as follows: 1798, 1,352 districts; 1816, about 5,000: 1820, 5,763; 1825, 7,642; 1830, 8,872; 1855, 9,865.

On the 4th of February, 1839, John C. Spencer was appointed secre- tary of state and superintendent of common schools, and he continued in office until 1842. He advocated several changes in the system, the most important being, perhaps, the county supervision of schools by regular visitors. These visitors reported to the superintendent, and one of the results of their early reports was the plan of appointing county superintendents, which went into effect in April, and resulted in a great improvement in the general character of the schools. The

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office was abolished in 1847. The only person who held this office in Erie county was Enoch S. Ely.

In his annual message of 1844 Governor Bouck treated largely the school question, stating among other things the following :

The substitution of a single officer, charged with the supervision of the schools of each town, for the board of commissioners and inspectors formerly existing, in con- nection with the supervisory and appellate powers of the several county superin- tendents, as defined by the law of the last session, seems to have met with the general approbation and concurrence of the people.

Samuel S. Young was secretary of state and superintendent of schools from February, 1842, to February, 1845, when he was succeeded by Nathaniel S. Benton, who continued until 1847, when the new consti- tution was in effect.

The subject of Teachers' Institutes was first brought forward in the Tompkins County Teachers' Association in the fall of 1842, and the first institute was held in the village of Ithaca April 4, 1843; they soon became a powerful auxiliary in elevating the teacher's profession.

A persistent and nearly successful attempt was made to engraft upon the new constitution of 1846 a free school system for the State. The section under which it was to have been accomplished was the follow- ing :

The Legislature shall provide for the free education and instruction of every child of the State in the common schools, now established, or which shall hereafter be es- tablished therein.

This section was adopted by a vote of 57 to 53, and a provision was then added directing the Legislature to provide for raising the neces- sary taxes in the districts to carry out the plan. The convention then adjourned for dinner. After reassembling the school article was re- ferred, on resolution, to a committee of one with instructions to strike out the last two sections relating to free schools. This was done and the provision for free schools was thus defeated.

On the 13th of November, 1847, the Legislature passed an act abol- ishing the office of county superintendent of common schools, directing appeals authorized to be made by law to be made to the state superin- tendent, and the annual reports of the town superintendents to be made to the county clerk. This measure was adopted largely in response to popular clamor, and was in many respects temporarily disastrous to the welfare of the schools. Reports of town superintendents were fre- quently superficial and incomplete, while they were "wholly incapable

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of supplying the place in the system which had been assigned to the higher class of officers."

On the 16th of December, 1847, the various statutes relating to common schools were consolidated into one act, with such amendments as seemed expedient; town superintendents were to hold their office two years; the library law was modified so that library money in any district might be used for teachers' wages, with the consent of the state superintendent, provided the number of volumes in the library had reached a certain proportion to the number of children, etc.

Christopher Morgan was state superintendent of schools and secre- tary of state from 1847 to 1851, when he was succeeded by Henry S. Randall, who held the office until 1853. In his message to the Legis- lature in 1849 Governor Fish expressed his belief "that the restoration of the office of county superintendent would be productive of good to the school system." He recommended two measures, either of which he thought would improve the situation:

First, The repeal of chapter 358, laws of 1847, restoring the office of county super- intendent, and making it elective by the people.

Second, The election of a superintendent in every Assembly district, except in the city of New York, and the cities which now have, or shall hereafter have, a city superintendent, or board of education, to manage their school affairs.

The superintendent in his annual report reviewed the situation of the question of free schools which was before the people. On the 26th of March, 1849, the Legislature passed an "Act establishing Free Schools throughout the State." A vote was to be taken for and against this act at the ensuing November election, and if a majority voted against it the act was to be void. The votes cast for the law numbered 249, - 872; against it, 91,951. For the details of the provisions of this act the reader is referred to the statutes of that year. Erie county gave a majority in favor of the act of 7,258 out of a vote of 8,800. The prac- tical application of the system met with wide-spread and intense oppo- sition from the first, and it soon became apparent that a demand for a repeal of the act would have to be met. At the annual election in the fall of 1850, therefore, the people voted upon the question of repeal, and polled a majority in favor of repeal of 46,874 in forty-two of the fifty-nine counties of the State; in the remaining seventeen counties the majority against repeal was 71,912, leaving a majority in the State against repealing the act of 25,088. Thus the beneficent free school system was permanently established. The majority given in Erie

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county against repeal was 1,743. In a work on the common school system of New York by S. S. Randall, published in 1851, credit is given Oliver G. Steele and Messrs. Starr and Rice, of Erie county, for aid in establishing the system.

The number of school districts reported in the State in 1850 was 11,397, and the number of children taught was 735,188. The present number of districts in the State is a little less than at that time, owing to the formation of various union districts.

In 1856 the provision of the law of 1851 appropriating annually $800,000 was repealed and a tax of three quarters of a mill on the dol- lar on real and personal property was substituted for payment of teach- ers' wages, and the rate bill was continued, while the school commis- sioners, who had theretofore been appointed by boards of supervisors, were to be elected on a separate ballot.

A law was passed in 1853 providing for union free schools, author- izing the inhabitants of two or more districts to elect trustees and levy a tax on the property in the united districts for the payment of teach- ers' wages and other expenses. A number of such districts have been created in Erie county, as noticed further on, and excellent graded schools established.

The general school law was revised in 1864, and in 1867 the rate bill was abolished and a tax of one and a quarter mills on the dollar of val- uation substituted.

It is neither practicable nor desirable to follow all the subsequent changes in the school laws; they were many and frequent, and con- tinued down to 1894, when on May 8 was passed "An Act to revise, amend and consolidate the general acts relating to public instruction." Under this act very much of preceding legislation was repealed and new and better regulations substituted.

Only a few schools were taught in Erie county outside of Buffalo previous to the war of 1812, and of those that had come into existence only the most meager account can be given. Almost no records at all were kept of the first schools, and in many towns if they were kept in later years they have been lost or destroyed. Before the war the pio- neers, while not lacking in appreciation of the importance of educating their children, were so crippled and restricted by their circumstances that it was nearly impossible to give much attention to the matter. But in many neighborhoods as soon as a little community of a few fam- ilies had settled sufficiently near each other to make the attendance of

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their children at a centrally located log school house possible, the little structure was erected by combined effort and a teacher installed. Those teachers were most frequently women, daughters or sisters of the pio- neers, and their labor was for many years ill-paid and unselfish. A few private schools existed in Buffalo before the war, and record is found of one taught in the town of East Hamburg in 1805, near Potter's Corners (East Hamburg), in a log house erected by the Quakers, who were the first settlers in that locality. That was, without doubt, the first school south of the Buffalo Creek Reservation. At about the time the war closed a few prominent settlers of that town built a school house near John Green's tavern, where the first post-office was estab- lished with the name Hamburg. This school house was used also for a Baptist meeting house for many years.

In the town of Aurora a school was taught in the summer of 1807, by Mary Eddy, in a log cabin at the east end of East Aurora in which William Warren, a son of a pioneer, had lived a short time. In the fol- lowing winter Mr. Warren himself taught there. In 1808 a frame school house was built on a site in the middle of what became Pine street, East Aurora. In 1823-24 Millard Fillmore taught school in that village and attended to such limited law practice as he could get; so also did Nathan K. Hall, who studied in Fillmore's office and taught school winters. In the year 1829 George W. Johnson opened an ad- vanced school or academy at the east end of the village of East Aurora and in the same year entered Mr. Fillmore's office as a student; the in- stitution continued only four or five years. In 1833 the Aurora Acad- emy was founded and became one of the most celebrated in Western New York. It was incorporated in 1832 as the Aurora Manual Labor Seminary, and a two-story frame building was finished in the next year.

The first trustees, chosen October 5, 1833, were Aaron Riley, Robert Persons, Ed- ward Paine, Calvin Fillmore, Joseph Howard, jr., Charles P. Persons, Joan C. Pratt, jr., Elihu Walker, Lawrence J. Woodruff, Bryan Hawley, Stephen Holmes, and David P. White. Elihu Walker was elected president, and Aaron Riley, secretary.

Daniel Howard, jr., was the first teacher, and in 1835 was succeeded by A. Garrison. On April 11, 1838, the name of the institution was changed to the Aurora Academy. Hiram H. Barney began his term as principal in May, 1838, and continued until 1847, his strict and vig- orous management giving the institution its deserved high reputation.

Other principals were Calvin Littlefield, from 1847 to 1852; Rev. James M. Har- low, 1852 to 1853; Hiram L. Ward, 1853 to 1859; George Conant, 1859 to 1865; Charles W. Merritt, 1865 to 1872; he was succeeded for one term by Darwin Phelps,

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after which Mr. Merritt returned for two years; Lloyd Rice, Mary Stratton David Sinclair and Mr. Gary occupied the position during the succeeding five years. when, in 1879, Mr. Merritt returned for one year; he was succeeded by Leslie W. Lake, who served until 1883.

In 1866-7 a large brick building was erected in front of the old one, which was removed. In 1883 a Union district was formed embracing the village of East Aurora and adjacent territory and the academy property was turned over to the trustees.

The first school house in the town of Lancaster was built in 1810, of logs; Miss Freelove Johnson was the first teacher. It was replaced by a better one within a few years and became known as the Johnson school house from its proximity to Capt. Henry Johnson's house; it stood on the site of the present brick school house in the Peckham neighborhood. An academy was founded in Lancaster village in 1843, and enjoyed a fair degree of prosperity for several years, after which attendance de- clined and it was abandoned. Judge Theodatus Burwell, an energetic bnt somewhat visionary lawyer residing in Lancaster and having an office in Buffalo, conceived the idea of establishing an agricultural col- lege at Lancaster. He built one or two small brick structures, adopted the name, Oakwood Institute, and instruction was begun to a few boys, who boarded with the proprietor. A Dr. De Young was one of the first instructors, and was soon succeeded by William H. Brewer, who was afterwards a professor in the Sheffield Scientific School connected with Yale College. He was the last teacher in the Lancaster institu- tion. A large brick school house was built in Lancaster in 1873 for district No. 8, on land donated by Ebenezer Briggs.

The first school house in Elma village was built by a number of prominent residents in one afternoon in the year 1846. Salina Standart taught about ten scholars there that winter and was the first teacher in the village. In 1856 the first school house was built in East Elma.

The records do not give us the date of the opening of the first school in the town of Clarence, but we may assume that there was one or more before the war of 1812, as the town was considerably settled at that time. It is certain that educational affairs have always received due attention from the community, for an excellent classical school was opened in Clarence Hollow as early as 1841, by J. Hadley and R. Blen- nerhassett. The institution was organized a few years later into the Clarence Academy, with a Board of Education consiting of O. K. Parker, A. Prince, A. L. Love, H. S. Long, Charles Leib, G. K. Les-

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ter, H. S. Stratford, Abram Erb and George Havens. The academy was reasonably prosperous, and in 1872 received from Dr. Jared Parker a gift of $15,000, to which the town added a like sum. In honor of Dr. Parker's generous endowment, the academy was given his name- Parker Academy. This institution is now known as the Parker Union School and Academy.

The first school house in the village of Williamsville, town of Am- herst, was built in 1812 by Caleb Rogers, and a Mr. Johnson was the first teacher. In 1840 a stone school house was erected. The Will- iamsville Academy was founded and erected in 1850; the first trustees were David Graybiel, John Frick, Isaac Hershey, George Gross, Chris- tian Rutt, John Hershey, Timothy A. Hopkins, Samuel L. Bestow, Benjamin Miller, John Witmer, John D. Campbell and James W. Stevens. This was only one of the many academies that were founded and flourished for longer or shorter periods throughout the State along in the middle of the century. They have nearly all been superseded by union and graded schools. The Williamsville Academy was no ex- ception, and after some years of usefulness the building was sold to the village for the district school.

Early efforts were made to promote education in the village of Springville, where Anna Richmond opened a school of fourteen schol- ars in 1810; it was in a log barn just north of the site of the village. The beginning of the effort to establish the Springville Academy took place in December, 1825, when a subscription paper was circulated to raise the necessary funds; but the scarcity of money retarded progress and it was not until 1829 that the sum of $2, 000 was pledged, and one-third of this was to be paid in grain, one-third in live stock, and one-third in cash. In that year a board of trustees was elected and the erection of a building commenced. It was finished in 1830 and Hiram H. Barney (who has been mentioned as the later principal of the Aurora Academy) was employed as the first principal.

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Our County and Its People: A Descriptive Work on Erie County, New York (Volume 1), Part 71

Author: Truman C. White Publication date: 1898 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1017

Author: Truman C. White
Publication date: 1898
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1017