Our county and its people : a memorial history of Tioga County, New York, Part 23

Author: Kingman, Leroy W., ed
Publication date: 1900
Publisher: Elmira, N. Y. : W. A. Fergusson and Company
Number of Pages: 932


USA > New York > Tioga County > Our county and its people : a memorial history of Tioga County, New York > Part 23


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74


THIE SCHOOL AND THE TEACHER.


The largest centers of population have generally afforded the best and most comprehensive educational advantages. The rural schools, in which the common branches have been taught almost exclusively, academic subjects being introduced occasionally, have existed in numbers greatly superior, and have covered a wider area, than those whose energies have been directed in the line of academic work. Of one hundred children entering school at the present time, two reach the college, four the high school, and ninety-four leave school for the active pursuits of life, without acquiring an academic or a college education. The number of


children of school age residing within the districts of the county has been steadily diminishing. In the year 1856 the number of resident pupils of school age was 10,585 ; while in 1896 the num- ber of such children was 6,383. In the comparison of these figures it must be taken into consideration that the former represent the number between four years and twenty-one years of age, and the latter those between five and eighteen. This will not make the difference appear so great. The actual attendance of pupils has


224


OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.


also greatly diminished. In 1848 the number of children attend- ing the schools was 8,541; in 1896, it was 6,526. During this period the number of teachers employed at the same time in- creased from 161 in 1856 to 227 in 1896, an increase of over 40 per cent, while the number of pupils decreased over 23 per cent. The amount of public money received in the year 1846 was $2,370.42. In the year 1896 it was $29,947.54, an increase of nearly 1300 per cent. The large district school outside of the village, as it ex- isted once, with fifty, or sometimes nearly one hundred pupils, has disappeared and is represented to-day by a school with an attendance of less than half that number. A school of forty is exceptional, and in 1895 there were fifty-seven districts in the county with an average attendance not exceeding ten. Better facilities afforded by the larger village schools and academies at- tracting pupils from the rural districts, as well as opportunities for employment of parents in the larger towns, may be reckoned among the causes contributing to this result. The consideration of the rural school, not only in this county, but throughout the state, presents one of the most important questions for solution, both from an educational and from an economic point of view.


Although the masses of pupils have received their education in the common schools, those conducted by private enterprise have also existed. In 1848, in the town of Owego, fifty pupils were reported in attendance at private schools, exclusive of the Owego academy. A private school still continues in the village of Owego, which during the school year ending July 31, 1896, had an attend- ance of sixty-five pupils. In the year 1848 there were twelve un- incorporated, select and private schools in the county, with 208 pupils in attendance. In the year 1856, the number of private schools had increased to eighteen, with an attendance of 720 pupils. The adoption and growth of the free school system, with the advantages it furnished, have obviated the necessity for the existence of private institutions, however desirable the features presented by the latter. Besides the one to which allusion is made above, only two more were reported in 1896, these in the village of Waverly, with a small attendance.


The reports of 1838 assert that the village of Berkshire main-


225


EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS.


tained a "high school" during nine months of the year. Since the organization of the academies in the villages of Owego, Waverly, Candor, Spencer, Newark Valley, and Nichols, the in- fluence of these schools has been felt, not only in their immediate vicinity, but throughout a wider range, and many of the surround- ing districts have been furnished with teachers prepared by them. In these high schools, and in the former two particularly, many students have made the necessary preparation and found their way to college. At convenient intervals during each year, regents' examinations have been held, both in preliminary and in advanced subjects, and a course of study has been adopted lead- ing to graduation. The Union schools of Apalachin and Tioga Centre, as well as the village schools of Berkshire, Richford, Barton, Smithboro, and Lockwood, although without a regularly organized academic department, have included in their course of instruction, besides the common branches, some of academic grades. The number of schoolhouses in Tioga county in 1848 was 156 ; in 1896 the number was 159, of which six were brick and 153 were frame buildings. The log schoolhouse, with its great fireplace, of the early days of our educational history, disappeared long ago, as well as the master and the pupils whom he instructed. " A man severe he was and stern to view I knew him well, and every truant knew ; Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace The day's disasters in his morning face ; Full well they laughed with counterfeited glee, At all his jokes, for many a joke had he !"


Others follow, building upon the foundation they left behind them, in turn to be followed by others still, in one continuous tide of humanity forcing itself into the world through the schoolhouses, out of which grow a broader view of life, a better citizenship, and a higher civilization. Many excellent schoolhouses have been erected in the country districts, in which may be found modern furniture and conveniences. Others bear the marks Time leaves behind, both outside and in-furniture exhibiting, in some instances, the accumulated evidence of the ability possessed by several genera- tions of boys in the art of wood-carving. It is worthy of note that the beautiful and commodious school-building in the village


26


OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.


of Newark Valley was erected a few years since at the personal expense of and was presented to the district by Royal W. Clinton, a resident of that village.


The essentials of a common-school education from our early history have been regarded as consisting of a knowledge of the "common branches "-arithmetic, geographiy, grammar, reading, writing, and spelling. To these in modern times have been added physiology and drawing, and in the higher grades, American his- tory and civil government. From this it will appear that the scope of the work done in the common-schools is now greater than that of former days. The number and character of the subjects pursued in those days depended often upon the fancy of the teacher, the tendency of the pupil, or the caprice of the parent. As an evidence of this fact the records of the year 1848 show that of the pupils then attending school in the county, 218 were studying the alphabet (modern methods of teaching reading were not then em- ployed), 1,549 interested themselves with arithmetic, 842 were poring over geography, 533 were musing over the rules of gram- mar, 125 were meditating on the events of history, 256 were investigating the laws of nature as revealed in natural philoso- phy, 110 pursued algebra, physiology attracted 151, bookkeeping was studied by three, astronomy engaged the attention of 13, instruction in vocal music was received by 472, geometry, sur- veying and higher mathemathics entered into the calculations of 8, mental or moral philosophy afforded abstract thought for 11, and the time of 588 was devoted exclusively to the subject of spelling. (Oral spelling was more generally practiced in those days than now. The "spelling school" in some localities was a prominent feature of the neighborhood, and furnished an evening of both entertainment and instruction at the district schoolhouse, where the young and those of more mature years had met to choose sides and "spell down." In the winter these excursions to the schoolhouse were sometimes made in the season of good sleighing with the ox-team as a means of conveyance, the latter doubtless packed with a happy throng, whose merry voices long ago died away, silenced forever by the uncompromising limit time sets upon the experience of mankind.)


227


EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS.


The teacher is now guided by a carefully arranged course of study and the teachers' manual issued by the state superintendent. A revised edition, the first issued by the superintendent, has recently been placed in each district. The two former editions, less complete than that just issued, served a period of usefulness, their existence, and help afforded by them to teachers in arrang- ing, grading, and classifying their schools, being due to the activity, zeal, and energy of Leon O. Wiswell, who served this county in the capacity of school commissioner for nearly eight years, and who, at present in the department of public instruction, still con- tinues to serve the state. The manual describes and limits the work of the pupil for each term of the year, at the conclusion of which examinations covering the same are furnished by the super- intendent, and those pupils showing the required degree of profi- ciency are granted " grade certificates " for the work of that term by the school commissioner, and proceed to that of the term to follow. At the close of the course (the completion of the work of the ninth grade), on acquiring the necessary standing in the ten subjects named above, the pupil is given a diploma.


The text-books, which have found their way into the school room from time to time, have varied greatly in character and in different localities. In each subject there seem to have been dif- ferent generations of books, which have disappeared with the generations of the people who used them, leaving to posterity the memory of their usefulness only. Arithmetical knowledge has been presented at different periods by such authors as Daboll (whose " rule of three" is still remembered), Walsh, Pike, Root, Colburn, Smith, Ostrander, Ruger, Adams, Emerson, Perkins, Green, Thompson and Stoddard. More attention was formerly given to mental arithmetic than is occupied with that subject at present. Geography was studied from Mason, Cummings, Dwight, Wood- bridge, Goodrich, Olney. Peter Parley, Willet, Smith, Huntington, Burritt, Mitchell, Morse, Colton and Fitch, but both the treatment of the subject and the teaching was confined within narrower limits than those bounding the same in modern writers on that topic. Maps were more imperfect and did not possess the con- venience those of later origin do. Knowledge of English grammar


228


OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.


was obtained from the text-books of Walker, Greenleaf, Murray, Kirkham, Brown, Frazee and Kenyon. More prominence was given to the practice of parsing than is now generally observed ; in fact the study of English was often narrowed down to an ex- clusive knowledge of "parsing." The number of pupils pursuing this subject seems to have been less than that studying arith- metic or geography. Judging from the figures heretofore given, we find that in the year 1848 the number of pupils studying grammar was about one-third the number receiving instruction in arithmetic.


A knowledge of reading and spelling has been regarded as the most essential, and recitations were sometinies confined ex- clusively to these branches, instruction in other subjects being made a personal matter suited to meet individual needs. The au- thors of text-books on reading included Cobb, Murray, Sanders, Porter, Anderson, and Denman. Besides their works may be men- tioned the English reader, High-school reader, North American reader, Girls' reading-book, and the Columbian reader. The spellers of Webster, Cobb, Williams, Sanders, Crandall, Randall, and Den- man were familiar text-books. The histories of Goodrich, Hale, Willard, Wilson, and Guernsey furnished means of acquiring knowledge in that branch. Algebra was studied from Day, Bour- don, and Robinson, (with intellectual algebra as a supplement) ; chemistry from Comstock ; rhetoric from Comstock, Newman, and Blair; physiology from Leet and Coates, Smith and Bullion, Cutler and Jones ; botany from Phelps ; astronomy from Ostrander and Abbott ; surveying from Flint, Dewey, and Davies ; geometry from Davies, Day, Gibson, and Playfair's Euclid ; natural philosophy from Jones, Comstock, Swift, Colburn, Davies, Olmstead, Blake, Taylor, Lee, Barber, and Parker ; bookkeeping from Preston, and Fulton and Eastman. The dictionaries were those of Walker and Webster.


Among the miscellaneous works finding their way into the schools were Cobb's Sequel, Common School Manual, American Manual, Farmers' School Book, American Instructor, Life of Columbus, Watts on the Mind, Wright's Orthography, Wayland's Moral Science, Town's Phrenological Chart, Page's Normal Chart,


229


EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS.


American Preceptor, and the Columbian Orator. Frequent men- tion is made in the records on file of the fact that the Bible and the Testament served as text-books in the early schools. Lack of uniformity in text-books is complained of by the school authori- ties of that tinie, and this condition prevails even now. The pres- ent era is producing books for school use greatly improved in char- acter over those of former times. Authors have multiplied in surprising numbers, many offering books of superior merit which are seeking recognition and competing for a place in the schools.


About the year 1840 a new impulse seems to have been given to library matters and interest stimulated to the extent that sub- scriptions for this purpose exceeded the amount of public money received for the same. Harper's "School District Library " ap- peared, comprising books written upon a variety of topics embrac- ing travel, science, history, biography, literature and agriculture, as these were then known or understood. Many of these volumes may still be seen occupying the upper shelves of the library case in some school districts. In 1848 the number of volumes reported in the district libraries of the county was 14,516; in 1856, the number was 16,649 ; but in 1896 it had diminished to 13,364. Of the latter number nearly three-fourths may be found in the towns of Barton and Owego. It may also be observed that more than one- half of the children of school age in the county reside in these towns. as shown by the enumeration of 1896. State money for library purposes, limited in amount, is now obtainable on the application of trustees for the same, on certified statement showing that a sum equal to that applied for has been raised by the district. In the case of common school districts this amount must not be less than five dollars nor more than ten. In union-school districts the limits are between ten and twenty-five dollars. Before the pur- chase of books for the school library, the trustee is required to submit a list for proposed purchase which must first be approved by the state superintendent, thereby preventing the introduction of worthless or pernicious works.


The qualifications and qualities of the teacher, combined with natural aptitude for the work, must be reckoned among the essen- tial causes contributing to the success and progress of the schools.


230


OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.


Early standards of qualifications were evidently required depend- ing on the judgment or caprice of local authorities. In 1822, "qualified teachers " and teachers "approved " are mentioned. In the year 1838 it is recorded that "a teacher under rigid rules was refused a license." The period covering the last ten years has doubtless produced more radical changes in the qualifications of teachers than are apparent in all the time preceding. Conditions to be complied with by the teachers are prescribed by the state superintendent. Examinations are now uniform throughout the counties of the state. Third-grade certificates are issued only after exhibiting the required degree of proficiency in the examination including ten different subjects, and are granted to the same can- didate but once, that for a period of one year. Second-grade cer- tificates are issued for a term of three years, after a satisfactory test furnished by an examination of fourteen different subjects has been passed. Certificates of the first grade, covering a knowledge of sixteen different subjects, in which the candidate must acquire the necessary standings, are issued for five years, and are renew- able without re-examination for the time during which the holder has been engaged in actual service.


The preparation for the work of teaching offered by the Train- ing Class has never been so efficient as it is at the present time. Two such classes are maintained, one in the Owego Free Academy, the other in the Waverly Academy. Qualifications for entrance to them, established by the state superintendent, are acquired by standings earned in the uniform examinations for teachers or in the regents' examination. The course of study covers the instruc- tion of one year, and the examination required for a certificate embraces sixteen subjects. Certificates earned in this examina- tion are issued for three years, and are renewable without re-ex- amination the same as those of the first-grade.


As a means of additional aid to the teacher's preparation, the Teachers' Institute has proved itself a success. Its origin in this county appears to date from the year 1848 (five years after the organization of the first one in the state at Ithaca), when the town superintendents recommended to the county clerk that he appoint them "an advisory committee to organize and conduct a Teachers'


231


EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS.


Institute." Subject matter continued at first to be the principal consideration at such meetings, but the energies of the institute are now directed largely in the lines of means and methods of do- ing educational work. The first mention of a normal graduate as a teacher is found in the records of 1856. It must be borne in mind that the first normal school in the state at Albany was not organized until the year 1844.


The schools of the village of Owego were organized by special act of the legislature, which confers upon the board of school commissioners of that village the power to license teachers em- ployed within its jurisdiction. During the current school year, information, at the time it was collected, revealed the fact that of the 228 teachers employed at the same time in the county, 30 held certificates of the first grade, 114 of the second, 19 of the third, 25 training-class certificates, 12 normal diplomas, 3 college-graduates' certificates, 10 state certificates, 2 temporary licenses, and 13 local certificates. Some of these also hold other certificates than the kind mentioned. About eleven per cent of the teachers employed are men.


The teacher of to-day enjoys the use of facilities in educational work in which the schools of an earlier period were deficient. In those days the master "set the copy " in the writing books (some of the old manuscripts bear witness of excellent penmanship), heard his recitations, gave his instruction, and inflicted his punish- ments. Many of the punishments were of a character which would not be tolerated in modern times.


" Within, the master's desk is seen, deep scarred by raps official ;


The warping floor, the battered seats, the jackknife's earved initial."


The "rap official" of the heavy ruler on the desk enjoined upon the school submission to the authority it stood for. This scepter of pedagogic sway was employed, as occasion demanded, to add impressiveness to the master's sentiments, with which the real- izing sense of the offender sometimes found himself closely in touch. "Dr. Beech " and "Dr. Birch" were called in consulta- tion, and the dismal errand of going to "fetch them," and the melancholy return of the unfortunate messenger with the dreaded rod of correction, produced an inner consciousness of nervous


232


OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.


agitation and disturbed tranquillity of soul with which the refrac- tory member of the school was familiar. The necessity of stern discipline seems to have been greater then than it is now. In contested matters of difference between master and pupil the master did not possess the co-operative influence of school au- thorities, nor the protection afforded by the improved school laws of the present time. A different spirit pervaded the school-roon. A higher grade of scholarship is now reached at an earlier age. There was less freedom then, more liberty to-day. Indeed, in a land of liberty, it seems proper that pupils in the public schools should learn how to use liberty. Less memorizing is now done in the schools than was done formerly. Men were generally employed as instructors in the winter, women during the summer. School was in session every other Saturday. Less progressive teachers, in the absence of the graded course of study now provided, have repeated the work of their predecessors to an unnecessary extent in some instances, and in this way proved a hindrance to the pro- gress of their pupils.


The everchanging body of teachers is being continually aug- mented by new members, and diminished by others whose term of service and degree of success vary greatly. Those at present em- ployed in the county whose experience within its borders is remark- able for long and continuous service are Miss E. Jennie Steele, of the Owego Free Academy, and Mrs. Mary L. Yates, to both of whom the writer would return grateful thanks for valued help and suggestions. To these may be added Miss Anna W. Abel. Miss Alice M. Hutchinson, Miss Estella A. Hill, Miss Mary J. Lewis and Miss Caroline A. Tuthill. Prof. E. J. Peck, principal of the Owego Free Academy, and Prof. P. M. Hull, principal of the Waverly academy, each, after many years of service in his present capacity, continues the work that has placed those institutions in the foremost ranks of similar ones in the state. These and others employed throughout the county continue the work of those pre- ceding them, conscientiously moulding the lives and shaping the destinies of those who will assume the duties and responsibilities of citizenship in a republic, where "The intelligence of the people is the security of the nation."


233


TOWN OF OWEGO.


Our County and its People.


TOWNS OF TIOGA COUNTY.


Owego, Owego Village, Barton, Waverly Village, Spencer, Newark Valley, Candor, Tioga, Nichols, Berkshire, Richford.


CHAPTER XVIII.


THE TOWN OF OWEGO.


T 1 THE first white occupants of the territory comprising the town of Owego were American soldiers under command of Gen- erals Poor and Hand, who were charged with the duty of driving the Indians from the Susquehanna valley, and who were also sent to the relief of General Clinton's army on its devastating march down the river, destroying and burning as it went along.


Every person familiar with American history knows that it be- came necessary for congress, and General Washington as com- mander of the United States army during the revolution, to inflict salutary punishment on the Indians of New York state who had allied themselves to the British cause. This memorable campaign, inaugurated and carried into effect during the summer and fall of 1779, was under the chief command of General John Sullivan, and in carrying out his plan of operation General Clinton proceeded


234


OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.


down the Susquehanna, laying waste every vestige of the Indian occupation. Stationed at Tioga Point with the main body of his army, Sullivan sent Generals Poor and Hand with nine hundred men to march up the river and meet Clinton's force, and it was this body of men who, on the 17th of August, 1779, camped on the site of the present village of Owego, and were, so far as any record shows, the first white men within the limits of the town, as after- ward constituted.


As a matter of history, and bearing directly on the early occu- pancy of the town and of its natural physical condition when first visited by the whites, a few extracts from the journal of lieuten- ant-colonel Henry Dearborn, an officer commanding one of the detachments of Sullivan's army, will be found interesting. The following quotations are taken from the published journal ver- batim et literatim ;


* "17th. We march'd early this morning proceeded 12 miles to Owagea an Indian Town which was deserted last spring after planting. About the town is a number of fruit trees & many plants & hearbs that are common in our part of the country here is a learge body of clear Intervale cover'd with Grass Our march to day has been very severe & fategueng especially for the left Column (to which I belong) as we had to pass several difficult steep hills & bad Morasses


"18th We march'd early this morning proceeded 14 miles to Chaconnut the remains of a large Indian town which has been likewise abandoned this summer Here we found plenty of cucum- bers squashes turnips &c we found about twenty houses which we burnt Our days March has been more severe than yesterday as we had besides hills and common swamps one swamp of about 2 miles so covered with large pines standing & lying which appeared as though several hurricanes had been very busey among them since which a tremendious groath of bushes about 20 feet high has sprung up so very thick as to render passing thro' them Impracti- cable by any troops but such as nothing but death can stop At sunset we ware very agreably alarm'd by the report of a Cannon up the river which we supposed to be Genl Clintons Evening Gun. "




Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.