USA > New York > Niagara County > Souvenir history of Niagara County, New York : commemorative of the 25th anniversary of the Pioneer Association of Niagara County > Part 10
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without a stated supply. Rev. A. U. Hutchins was the min- ister in 1900, and Rev. Otis F. Alvord, the present pastor, began his labors in 1901.
The brick church at Olcott was erected in 1858. It has been in past years a strong and flourishing organization. Since 1882 the records show the following pastors served the church : Rev. C. C. Richardson, Rev. F. A. Gray, Rev. W. I. Towsley, Rev. F. B. Peck (who died in 1893), Rev. C. F. Paddock, Rev. J. A. Copeland, Rev. A. U. Hutchins and Rev. Otis F. Alvord. For the past four years the pas- tor at Lockport has held services Sunday afternoons at Ol- cott and looked after the spiritual interests of the congre- gation.
The church of Cambria was built in 1868, on the North Ridge. During the pastorate of Rev. B. Brunning the re- maining debt on the church was paid off, Mr. Brunning an- nouncing the fact on the occasion of the last sermon that he preached. During most of the recent years the pulpit has been supplied by preachers from Lockport or Olcott. At present Mr. Alvord holds services there every alternate Sunday.
The church at Niagara Falls was organized in 1889. Rev. H. P. Morrell, of Grace Church, Buffalo, representing the New York State Universalist convention, held services there, first in a hall, later in the parlors of the International Hotel, and finally a chapel was fitted up on Main street. Mr. Morrell was assisted by Rev. L. M. Powers, of the First Universalist Church of Buffalo. In May, 1902, a call was extended to Rev. De Witt C. Reilly, who was ordained July 15 following, and immediately started on his pastorate un- der favorable auspices. Although the church has been or- ganized since 1889, Mr. Reilly is the first settled pastor of the church, the congregation having been ministered to by preachers from neighboring cities.
Besides the foregoing denominations whose history has been recalled, the Christian Scientists and the Dunkards are represented in the county by organized bodies. There may be other denominational organizations in the county, but diligent inquiry has failed to bring forth facts concerning them.
SCENE ALONG EIGHTEEN-MILE CREEK.
Schools of niagara County. BY JAMES ATWATER.
ARLY acquaintance with the schools of Niagara County dates from the spring of 1838, when I came here from the eastern part of the State. The common schools, at that time, were, with few exceptions, the only available means of education open to the masses of the people. Instruction in these schools was confined exclusively to the three Rs, and in some cases English grammar and geography.
JAMES ATWATER.
The affairs of each district were managed by three trus- tees, elected at school meetings, held annually. To them was intrusted the entire charge of the schools, except that they could not impose a tax, not voted at a meeting of the legal voters of the district. Subject to this restriction, they built school houses, employed teachers, levied taxes for in- cidental expenses, such as fuel and repairs, the tuition and books of indigent pupils, and made the apportionment of rate bills, based on daily attendance of pupils whose parents, or guardians, were deemed able to pay.
The amount charged each pupil being based on the ra- tio of his attendance to the aggregate attendance of the whole school (except indigent pupils), it will be readily seen that a premium was offered for irregular attendance, and there were no truant officers in those days to look after de- linquents.
The schools of each town were subject to the superin- tendence of three inspectors, generally lawyers, sometimes ministers, occasionally farmers, but rarely, if ever, teachers. They examined and licensed the teachers, apportioned the public school moneys received from the State among the several districts, considered and decided appeals from the acts of trustees, and occasionally visited the schools under their jurisdiction.
The schools, in the country districts, were usually kept open about three or four months in summer, and three
months in winter. Winter schools were always taught by men, and summer schools, usually, though not always, by women, some of the more wealthy districts employing men both winter and summer, seeming to prefer their teaching to that of women.
The wages paid men in country districts varied in the eastern counties of the State from $10 to $12 per month, and in Niagara County from $13 to $18 per month. Wo- men, in most cases, received from $1.50 to $2 per week. In addition to these munificent salaries both men and wo- men were boarded free-"boarding round" the district. This practice continued, in most instances, until the adop- tion of the free school law in 1869. The teachers swept the school rooms, built the fires (being lucky if they did not have to saw the wood), wrote the copies, made and mended the quill pens (the only ones in use), and assisted the trustees in making out the taxes and rate bills. The districts usually covered considerable territory, and "boarding round" was sometimes a little burdensome.
The writer recalls, that while teaching in a large district in the Town of Royalton, in the winter of 1839-40, he had to hear a large grammar class after school hours (his pupils numbering sixty to seventy daily, of all grades from the alphabet to English grammar), go in one instance two and one-half miles to board, entertain the family during the evening, and have breakfast early enough in the morning to get back two and one-half miles to school before it was light enough to see, to write copies. But "boarding round" had its bright side also. As a rule the teacher lived on the "fat of the land," and not unusually he was asked to defer his visit until after the annual "killing." He was brought into close contact with the parents and patrons of the school, which was a great help to him. It was a good system for those early times; but has passed away never to return. Such was our school system, and such its administration up to about the year 1840.
Up to the year 1845 Lewiston and Wilson are believed to have been the only incorporated academies in the coun- ty. In 1842 a school, called the Middleport Academy, was established, mainly through the efforts of the Rev. E. B. Sherwood, who was at that time very influential in Western New York. The first teachers were D. M. Lindsley, a grad- uate of Union College, and Miss Margaret Baldwin, who were well equipped for their work, and attracted quite a large number of young men and women from neighboring towns, as well as the villages. There are some now living in the county who gladly testify to the high character of the teachers and the excellence of the school. At about the same time there was a school at Royalton Center, called Royalton Academy, which did its share in promoting the cause of education. There was also a Female Academy at Lockport, located on "Court House Square," under the care of Mrs. Wilson and the Misses Whiting and Bennett, wo- men of rare qualifications and great influence as educators, and who afterwards became teachers in Lockport Union School. There were also select schools in Lockport, taught by Moses Richardson, James B. Chase, and others ; and Da-
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SOUVENIR HISTORY OF NIAGARA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
vid Crandall, who, it is said, once had a story telling match with Abraham Lincoln, and came out ahead, taught a select school in Pekin. It is believed, however, that these were none of them incorporated, and they all ceased to exist at about the time the Lockport Union School was started.
Lewiston Academy, as has been stated, was the first academy in the county chartered by the State, and we have great pleasure in giving its history, as furnished us by our old and dear friend, Rev. Joshua Cooke, who was a part of it, and writes from genuine love of that old institution, which was for a long time the pride of the pioneers. He gives us also some things connected with the earlier schools of Lewiston, as leading up to the academy, which will be of interest. Our only regret is that our limited space will not allow us to publish Mr. Cooke's extremely interesting letter in full :
LEWISTON SCHOOLS.
"The school system of Lewiston took its rise in one of the finest tributes to educational need that the writer has known. Immediately after the War of 1812, as every building in the town had been burned by the British and Indians, except one stone building that would not burn, in retaliation for the wanton and barbarous burning of Newark by Col. McClure, on his evacuation, all had to be rebuilt on the return of the inhabitants from their flight. As, at that time, Lewiston was the County Town, and the Erie Canal and Lockport had not been thought of, the old town gath- ered to itself the men who became the leading men of the county-Bartons, Hotchkisses, Cookes, Townsend, Hop- kins, Robinson, Millar, and others; business men, lawyers, doctors, farmers, of the most stalwart and determined kind; their burned homes had no sooner been rebuilt than they turned their thoughts to a school and school house for their children. Before 1820 the old stone school house, near the site of the present academy, was built, and for many years used as the one hope and pride of the people for their children. It was a square stone building, of two stories ; about twenty-four feet square; for many years the second story was used for Sunday religious services, con- ducted by such ministers of different denominations as, in the spirit of the Master, 'went about, doing good,' in that day of poverty and wilderness.
"In that old stone school house were laid the founda- tions of education for men who, in after days, were to be leaders in the community, and pioneers of settlement and education in 'the regions beyond.' The old house ought never to have been removed. When its day was over, it should have been reverently enclosed with iron railing, and been left, its own monument of good done to all the country around ; untold in records, but of value untold, also, to hun- dreds who lived to bless its memory. The names of its teachers should have been hung on a tablet, that all could read and see, in honor to the faithful teachers of the pio- neer days-Fitzgerald, Carpenter, Fairchild, Chamberlain, Owen-how glad would the writer be to stand, with bared head, and drop wreaths of gratitude on your graves today. Alas! the last one left to do so, even if your graves were known. For aught the writer knows this was the first school in Niagara County, for it was immediately after 1815, when the war closed. Then came the wonder of those days, the old Lewiston Academy. At large personal sacrifice, it was started in 1824-four stories, 60x40 feet, and 50 feet in height. The Masonic fraternity, at its own request, put on the fourth story, for lodge purposes, and so used it. It was started under Rev. David Smith, a Presbyterian cler-
gyman, and merged into a school of the Lancasterian sys- tem, under two most excellent and faithful men, Messrs. Allen and Montgomery.
"In 1830 came a man from Dartmouth College, to take charge of the academy, whose advent was one of the shap- ing events for education in this county. That man was Jacob Hook Quinby. To the thorough cultivation of a graduate of Dartmouth, he united a personal magnetism that was, for all scholars under him, an inspiration and a charm. His very smile was an inspiration, and his verbal approval was a prize to study for. To have a defective recitation to him seemed almost a crime. This was the man, and this was the school for two years. Let the reader bear in mind that at the time Niagara Falls, Wilson, no other town in the county had an academy, and Sullivan Caverno had not come to Lockport to organize its High School, and watch over it as a mother over her child. The three Rs were the extent of our district school teaching, and here, all at once, before the bright boys and girls of 10 to 17 years, lay a new untrodden field. Algebra, Geometry, History, Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, and even Latin! Pupils came to the old school from far and near. Lockport sent Mortimer M. Southworth, Parks, Chapin and Moly- neux; Buffalo and Canada sent their contingents, and the academy became a graduation for district school scholars.
"In 1832 came Sullivan Caverno. Lockport and Niag- ara County afterwards knew him well. He was a well- taught man-faithful in teaching, but somewhat severe. He was lame from a shortened limb, and used a slight iron frame under one foot to make it even with the other, and he should not be judged harshly if sometimes irritable. The writer, in this connection, recalls the words of that al- most saintly man, Gen. O. O. Howard, who said to an as- sembly, one day, pointing to his armless sleeve, 'A man who has lost a limb always feels himself an imperfect man-a mutilated man.' Under the two years of Mr. Carveno, the writer of these lines may be permitted to say, was laid the foundation of studies, to be afterward followed up in college, in a law office, and in a Theological Seminary. His name is one for deepest debt with me.
"Next came Sherburn B. Piper, and all Western New York knows him-an admirable teacher for scholars that would learn, but not much admired by stupid or careless ones, and the old school kept its standard to the full under Mr. Piper.
"Then came Moses H. Fitts and Reuben Close. By this time academies were starting up all around. The tide of population flowed elsewhere, and the old school waned and died. A fine addition was afterwards made to the building, but the school could not be revived. They who taught it are dust, but the old walls stand over the dust, a monument and a memory. It would be improper to omit stating that the teaching of Laura Dunbar (afterward Mrs. Ralston) and Margaret Baldwin was fully on a par with that of the male principals who have been mentioned. They are both gone; the few, very few, of their many pu- pils, scattered over the whole Union, now gray-haired wo- men themselves, hold their names in the most affectionate and grateful recollection."
As the question of the first school in the county has been raised, we add a subsequent note sent us by Mr. Cooke :
"In 1806 a school was taught by a Scotchman, named Watson, and in 1807 continued by Jonas Harrison, one of the two attorneys already in Lewiston. Perhaps there
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SOUVENIR HISTORY OF NIAGARA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
were earlier ones elsewhere, but I doubt it. The school was kept in a log house, in the other end of which a family lived."
WILSON SCHOOLS.
Soon after Mr. Fitts came to the Lewiston Academy, Wilson Academy was founded in November, 1845. Benja- min F. Wilcox, Jr., was the first principal ; David H. Davis, assistant principal, and Miss Elizabeth Merritt, preceptress. J. G. O. Brown, now of Wilson, says: "Messrs. Wilcox and Davis remained eleven years, and left a decided impression upon the generation of pupils placed under their care. Prof. Davis passed away but a few weeks ago, at the home of his daughter in Owosso, Mich., aged 82 years. This school was one of the pioneer schools of the county, and it has been the aim of the trustees to make it worthy of the patronage and success it has received. Until 1869 it was supported by tuition and public money, received from the State. At that time it was reorganized as a Union Free School. The pres- ent edifice, built two years ago, cost $12,000. Many who have been teachers there have taken high places in the schools of our land, and from the pupils there are ministers, lawyers, and doctors in all parts of the country."
Up to the year 1845, Lewiston and Wilson were the only incorporated academies in the county. Wil- son Academy, from the start, was very popular. It was largely patronized by Lockport, all the middle and western towns of this county, with many students from other coun- ties, and from other States. It drew largely from the former support of Lewiston Academy, which was one of the chief causes of the decline of that institution. Wilson Academy had become the "proper thing;" the beautifully shaded streets of the village were so traversed by students, from far and near, that they seemed like "Academic Groves." Lewiston could not stem the tide, and Wilson took on the airs of a college town, from which she has hardly yet recovered. Messrs. Wilcox and Davis must have been remarkable men. It was observed at the Far- mers' picnic two years ago that Mr. Davis then, after long years of absence, a visitor to the county, was all the time the center of an admiring group of his former pupils.
SCHOOLS OF NIAGARA FALLS.
The records of the Town of Niagara show that a school was organized under the provisions of an act for the estab- lishment of common schools throughout the State (passed June 19, 1812), some time in 1814 or 1815. Parkhurst Whit- ney, George Burger and Garritt Van Slyke were appointed school commissioners. In 1816 Augustus Porter, Silas Hopkins, and George Rogers were elected school commis- sioners, and G. Pierce, Parkhurst Whitney and Joseph Pettit, school inspectors. And it was voted that $20 be raised for the use of common schools. The above named gentlemen served the town for several years.
In 1819 Judge De Veaux was made a coinmissioner, and served as such several years. At his death he left most of his fortune as an endowment to De Veaux College, a splendid monument to his memory.
In the early records of the schools the name Park- hurst Whitney occurs oftener than any other.
In the year 1830 ninety-seven children attended the school in District No. 2, and in addition to $44.50 public money, $148.23 was paid for teachers' wages. In 1840 the school reached 180, and the public money $154.93. The first teachers whose names appear on the records were A. Thomas and a Mr. Jerauld, the latter receiving the munifi- cent sum of $80 for four months' service. The schools grew
rapidly in numbers and importance, new and enlarged ac- commodations being furnished.
In 1848 James F. Trott was elected a trustee, and from that time to the day of his death the history of the schools was also his personal history. Nothing pertaining to the schools escaped his notice. The management of schools was left almost entirely in his hands. He was always in- terested in teachers' institutes and associations. In per- sonal appearance he always reminded the writer of the pictures of Benjamin Franklin, and he seemed to have the mental characteristics of that great man.
Niagara Falls ought to erect a monument to James F. Trott, in memory of the self-sacrificing work he did for her schools.
March 21, 1853, the Union Free School law was passed, and in January, 1855, by a vote of the inhabitants, a Union Free School was established. James F. Trott, William Samway, Goodell S. Ware, H. H. Stearns, William H. Childs, and Joseph M. Clark were elected at the first Board of Education. Mr. Trott was made president; Mr. Clark, secretary, and Mr. Ware, treasurer. J. W. Barker was employed as principal, and a Miss Balis as assistant. It is noted that Mr. Barker reveived a salary of $700 per year, and Miss Balis $16 2-3 per month.
Miss Caroline Clark was employed as a teacher in 1837. and served continuously for thirty years. Mr. Barker was very active and influential in school matters throughout the county and State. He afterwards became one of the ed- itors and proprietors of the Lockport Journal.
In 1885 the Academic Department was established and placed under the visitation of the Regents of the University.
Since then the prosperity of the schools has been phe- nomenal. New school houses have been built, efficient su- perintendence established, and the schools have kept even pace with the growth and prosperity of the city. From the first recorded attendance of thirty-seven children in the year 1820, the attendance in 1897 had grown to 3,451. The teachers from one to seventy. Nathaniel L. Benham, who was connected with the schools from 1884 until the time of his death, Aug. 3, 1891, had done more for the upbuilding of the schools than any other educator. He was well and fa- vorably known throughout the State. The establishment of a Central High School was one of his ambitions, which was never fully realized. A model building for this purpose is now nearly completed, which will be the pride of the cit- izens and a goal for the ambitious students of the growing city.
The foregoing sketch is condensed from a history pre- pared by the late Superintendent Benham, and furnished me through the courtesy of the present popular and efficient superintendent of the Niagara Falls schools, R. A. Taylor.
SCHOOLS OF NORTH TONAWANDA.
The writer has been unable to obtain any history of the early schools of North Tonawanda. The earliest teachers known to him were William Gritman, D. S. Pitcher, Jonas W. Brown, and A. D. Filer, of whom the first three, either before or after, served as school commissioners, and all of whom did excellent work at Tonawanda. Mr. Filer had previously taught with great acceptance at Middleport. He was a painstaking, conscientious, and thorough organ- izer. In connection with B. F. Felton, president of the Board of Education for the last twenty or twenty-five years. he inaugurated the present system of ward schools and planned the buildings, which are considered models, worthy of universal imitation. The Felton High School, recently
.
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SOUVENIR HISTORY OF NIAGARA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
completed, is one of the finest school buildings in the State. In addition to the usual academic departments it has thor- oughly equipped departments, for manual training, cooking and sewing.
The splendid and costly equipments of these depart- ments were donated by A. C. Tuxbury, and are a splendid monument to his liberality. Superintendent Frank J. Beardsley, Principal H. S. West, and their assistants, are said to be doing most excellent work. About fifty-five teachers are employed in the system. To show the liber- ality of the people of North Tonawanda in support of their schools, it may be added that the new High School build- ing was built, at a cost of $93,909.86, and that their school tax last year, for the ordinary expenses of the schools, was $40,708.31. Foremost among the friends and patrons of the schools have been B. F. Felton, A. C. Tuxbury, Peter Hittle, B. S. Rand, G. S. Judd, L. S. Payne, A. G. Kent, and many others.
SCHOOLS OF LOCKPORT.
The educational facilities of Lockport, prior to 1848, were limited to seven district schools and a few private, or select, schools. The district schools were subject to the same laws, rules and regulations as the common schools of the rural districts throughout the State. The seven school houses were rude structures, most of them having but one room, and none of them more than two. The stone dwell- ing, still standing on the corner of North Adam and Dayton streets, is a fair sample of them all. The furniture and equipments, like the buildings, were of the coarsest and cheapest kind. All the public school property of Lockport in 1847 was not worth $10,000, while the present value of the school property of the city is at least $300,000.
In 1846 Sullivan Caverno, a graduate of Dartmouth College, and a leading lawyer in the village, who had been principal of Lewiston Academy, conceived the idea of a school system which should bring not only a common school, but an academic education within the reach of all. He pre- pared a bill, embodying his ideas, and won to its support so many of the influential men of the village, that with but lit- tle opposition it became a law March 31, 1847. The terri- tory covered by the seven common school districts became the "Union School District of Lockport." The seven dis- tricts were continued as primary school districts. It was provided that two or more primaries might be united to form secondary districts. A central school, to be known as the "Lockport Union School," in which were to be taught only the higher branches of education, was provided for. The Union School, seven primary schools and three sec- ondaries were organized under the law, a system that con- tinues until now, except that the "intermediate" takes the place, substantially, of the three secondary schools. The control of the whole system was vested in a Board of Ed- ucation, composed of twelve trustees, one for each of the primary districts, and five for the Union School district.
The scheme was somewhat analagous to that of our Federal Union and the States comprising it; but so abso- lute is the control of the Board of Education over all the schools that nothing like the assertion of State rigths against the central power has ever occurred. The members of the Board of Education named in the law were Sullivan Caverno, William G. McMaster, J. T. Bellah, S. H. Marks, Isaac Col- ton, J. S. Wolcott, E. S. Boardman, Nathan Dayton, Samuel Works, Jonathan L. Woods, L. A. Spalding and Hiram Gardner. They were eminently representative men. It is doubtful whether twelve other names could have been se-
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