The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884 Volume I, Part 154

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed. cn; Brockett, L. P. (Linus Pierpont), 1820-1893; Proctor, L. B. (Lucien Brock), 1830-1900. 1n
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1114

USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884 Volume I > Part 154

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In all the schools mentioned above, the Dutch lan- guage was at first the only one used. But, from about the year 1758 to the year 1800, both the Dutch and English languages were taught. In the Bushwick and Gowanus schools, the use of the Dutch tongue was continued much later, and cven down to the Revolu- tion. In the Bushwick school studies in Dutch were not abandoned until about fifty years ago.

After the close of the Revolutionary war, the sub- ject of public instruction was much agitated in the pulpit and the public prints. In 1789, an Act was passed providing for the sale and disposition of public lands for the support in part of schools for each town- ship, and about 40,000 acres were reserved for the benefit of schools. At this time there was still no public school system for the State, and Brooklyn con- tinued the use of the schools she had herself estab- lished. In 1795, an Act was passed " for the encourage- ment of schools," and appropriations made from the State Treasury. In 1805, a law was enacted "to raise a fund for the encouragement of common schools," and distribution directed. It was under this law that Public School No. 2 was re-organized, and trustees ap- pointed, as the first established public school in Brook- lyn.

In the year 1816, the sum of $2,000 was levied upon the property of District No. 1, then including the vil- lage of Brooklyn, to establish a school. On May 6th, of that year, the Public School No. 1 was duly opened on the lower floor of Kirk's printing office, in Adams street, near Sands. Within the limit of the village of Brooklyn, at that time, were found 552 children who were not in attendance upon the private schools. The first principal of this school was Judge John Dikeman. Mr. White was principal from September, 1834, to October, 1869, and subsequently acted as one of the clerks of the Board of Education, up to the time of his death, in the year 1881. Mr. John W. Hunter, subsequently Mayor of the city, was one of the dis- trict trustees long before the organization of the Board, of which, for many years, he was an honored member.

The late Mr. E. S. Whitlock also served as member of the committee of this school, until his election as President, in the year 1870, which office he continued to fill up to the time of his death, in the year 1881.

Schools of the Town of Bushwick and Village of Williamsburg .- [BY THE EDITOR.]-The educa- tional advantages of Bushwick in the olden time were, from its peculiarly isolated position and the smaller admixture of the Yankee element in its population, even more limited than those of Brooklyn and Flat-

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bush. There was, indeed, the old school, at Bushwick Corners, already referred to, and the Wallabout school; and some of the children in the Wallabout district availed themselves of the tuition furnished at the Bed- ford school, in Brooklyn. But Bushwick, although farther removed from New York city, was not altogether overlooked by the traveling Yankee pedagogues, who went roaming around in Dutchland, and who manifested a wonderfully keen appreciation of the home comforts of the quiet old Dutch farm-houses, an appreciation which not infrequently took the shape of a permanent attachment to the daughter of the household, and a consequent retirement from the ranks of instructors into the more pleasant walks of domestic life. Of such, perhaps, was Peter Witherspoon, who "notifies the public," through the columns of Rivington's Gazette, in 1778, " that he intends to teach a small number of Greek and Latin scholars, not exceeding six or eight, at Bushwick, with due attention to education and morals." From Gaine's newspaper, in 1779, we learn that an equally adventurous teacher, the "Rev. Mr. Foley, has opened an academy at Aram, in Bushwick, for the reception of young gentlemen, to be instructed in Greek, Latin and the English tongue, grammatically. Would be willing to accommodate a few young gentle- men with board."

Coming down to a more recent period, we find that, in 1826, Mr. David Dunham, a gentleman of foresight and liberality, and largely interested in the advance- ment of all the material interests of the place, donated a plot of ground, 30 by 100 feet, near the present North First street, as a site for a district school-house. The building erected on the plot (the same which was afterward occupied by the colored school) was then known as District School No. 3, of the town of Bush- wiek. The district then included all that portion of the city south of Fourteenth street and west of Union avenue, and the whole number of children within its limits did not exceed forty. By act of Legislature, April 14, 1827, the village of Williamsburg was incor- porated, and as its population increased, public atten- tion was more strongly called to the subject of educa- tion, and several unsuccessful attempts were made by private individuals to obtain assistance from the State, by which the schools might be placed upon an equal pecuniary footing with those of New York city. Owing, however, to the prejudice then existing against public schools, this one dragged out a miserable existence, doing and receiving but very little good. In 1835 another legislative act extended the village to Bush- wick avenue, taking in part of another school district; and, in 1838, Messrs. Edwin Ferry, David Garret and James Ainslie, newly elected trustees of the school dis- trict, set themselves vigorously at work to improve the character and promote the efficiency of the school. Discharging the teacher previously employed, they engaged Mr. William H. Butler (afterwards city clerk

of the 'Burgh after it became a municipality), who found, upon commencing his duties, an attendance of only 30 children. This increased within a year to 150, being nearly one-half of all the children in the district (306), and three-fourths of all fit to attend school. The school-house, a small one-story edifice, 19 by 25 feet, on Grand street, between Third and Fourth, was quite insufficient for the accommodation of the scholars, and, in 1839, a meeting was called for the purpose of raising funds wherewith to enlarge it. Six gentlemen attended the meeting, and voted for this specific purpose the sum of $125, which was appropriated to the addition of a second story. Mr. Butler gradually made head- way against the obstacles which beset him, such as the lack of accommodations, books, and of the proper sympathy and encouragement from those whose duty it was to promote the cause. In a few months the school increased to 236 scholars, 156 of whom were boys, another teacher was engaged, and its course thenceforth was onward. By an act of Legislature, in 1840, the village of Williamsburg was separated from the town of Bushwick, and incorporated as a town. The census of that year gave the population of the village as 5,094, of whom 1,018 were children, and for all these only the one small school-house already men- tioned. In all previous legislative acts relative to Williamsburg no reference was made to school districts, the General School Act having left them untouched until changed by the commissioners of schools of one or both towns; and, for several years, the annual election of trustees took place in School District No. 3, without reference to the village extension of 1835. Apparently, no one imagined that the acts of 1835 and 1840 had changed the status of the school districts, until a pro- posal having been made to erect a new school-house in District No. 3, the opponents of the plan argued that the school districts having been changed by thesc afore- said acts, there were no boundaries, and therefore no base upon which the commissioners could act. The plan first suggested for meeting the wants of the dis- trict was the erection, in some central and convenient place, of a high school for advanced scholars, and primary school-houses in different parts of the village. This would have admirably suited the wants of the village, but no provision having been made by the school act for schools of different grades, it was con- cluded to erect a building that might eventually be- come a high school for the village. At a meeting of the citizens, convened by the trustees (James D. Spark- man and Samuel Cox), December 3d, 1841, for the pur- pose of raising money, by tax on the district, to pur- chase lots and erect a school-house, a motion to raise $800 for the lots and $4,500 for building was unani- mously carried, by 37 ayes. The project met with much opposition, even from the board of village trustees; but the trustees of the school, sustained, in spite of several appeals, by the decision of the State Superin-

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tendent of Public Instruetion, went bravely on with their work. Their attempt to collect the tax was strenuously resisted by some, prominent among whom was the president of the village, who sued the trustees for seizure of his goods, and obtained a jury verdict reversing the decision of the State Superintendent. The trustees appealed to the higher courts, and during the temporary suspension of the eolleetion of the tax, the population of Williamsburg increased rapidly, and in less than a year, the necessities of education had be- come more pressing, there being now more advocates for three new school-houses than there were for a less number. In June, 1843, the trustees of District No. 3, availing themselves of an amendment to the sehool act, by which a town superintendent took the place of com- missioners, agreed to omit the annual eleetion; and the people, in district sehool meeting assembled, voted to divide the village into three distriets. Mr. Richard Berry was eleetcd Superintendent of Sehools, and shortly after the three school distriets were thus appor- tioned: No. 1 comprised all that portion of the town south of Grand street and west of Union avenue; No. 2 the upper village, and No. 3 the village west of Grand street.

The first Board of Trustees, under this arrangement, were: (Distriet 1) Thomas J. Fenwiek, James Noble, Timothy Coffin; (Distriet 2) Lemuel Richardson, Charles S. Booth, Jacob Zimmer; and (District 3) Graham Polley, William Lake and James Ainslie. The suit which had been commenced was amieably adjusted, the expenses of the sehool trustees being assumed by the village; and all remaining opposition was soon ter- minated by a decision of the State Superintendent (rendered August 7, 1843), as to the legal validity of the action of the Trustees and Town Superintendent. A new brick building, adequate to the wants of the inereasing population, was erected in each district; and, about 1850, a large and elegant building was added to the First Distriet, while in the Second District the old building was exehanged for a larger and more suitable one. In 1851 Bushwick was united to Williamsburg, and the city of Williamsburg was ereated, the number of its publie sehool scholars in 1852 being 6,700. At the time of the consolidation of Bushwiek and Williams- burg and Brooklyn, Distriet No. 1 became the present Publie School No. 23.

Primary Schools .- The honor of first establish- ing separate primary schools in Brooklyn is due to the late Graham H. Polley. To his liberality and gener- osity (for he paid the rents out of his own pocket), the organization of old Primary Schools Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4, in various rented apartments, was indebted. Mr. Polley, while a member of the Board of Education of Wil- liamsburg, was constantly urging the establishment of primary schools ; and through his aid, and that of the Rev. Mr. Demorest, the Intermediate sehools Nos. 20 and 21, were erected in the year 1852. It was the con-

solidation of Brooklyn with Williamsburg that started the organization of separate primary schools in the former eity.

It is not until the year 1827 that we find doeumen- tary evidence of the existence of another sehool, at the junction of Red Hook and Cornell's lanes, near the present corner of Court and Degraw streets. This was taught by Nathan Jackson. He was followed by Ben- jamin Brown, and he, about 1830, by Mr. L. E. White, who left the school after a service of over four years. The school, which was situated in a very sparsely set- tled neighborhood, had then about sixty scholars, and Mr. White was followed by one Clark, who remained but a short time. About 1831, Mr. McKinley, a tal- ented Irishman, took eharge, and under him the school inereased, until, in 1835, a new briek building, of some considerable architectural pretensions, was ereeted on Baltie, near Court street, and was subsequently occu- pied by the Catholies as a seminary. Under a succes- sion of good teachers the sehool prospered, and, in 1853, was removed to a fine new building in Warren, near Smith street, and which was much improved in 1862. It is now known as No. 6.

Up to 1827, out of the five sehools, the beginnings of which have been narrated above, only one (that is, No. 1), was located in the village of Brooklyn. And the subject being agitated about this time (1827) of start- ing another distriet school for the aeeommodation of the present Seeond and Fifth wards, Messrs. Dr. J. S. Thorne, James H. Clark, and Alexander Newman were ehosen trustees of the new distriet. These gentlemen rented, for the purpose, a two-story framed building on the northwest corner of Adams and Prospect streets, which had been used by the Methodists as a sabbath school, and employed as its principal a Methodist preacher, named Latimer, who taught on the Laneas- terian plan for a period of seven years. This school, then No. 2 of the village, is now No. 7 of the present publie schools of the eity, having been moved, in 1838, to Bridge street near Plymouth, and from thence, in 1840, to York street, near Bridge.

On this site has just been completed one of the best buildings ever ereeted for sehool purposes in this coun- try-a structure to which the City can point with justifiable pride.

Dr. J. Sullivan Thorne continued in charge of this sehool, as member or chairman of its local committees until his death a few years ago. For more than forty years he devoted much of his fortune and leisure to the promotion of public education in Brooklyn, and was President of the Board of Education for two years.

Mr. Henry Dean became Principal of No. 7 in 1836, and continued in charge until 1849, and thereafter acted as one of the elerks of the Board of Education until his death.

During the next year, 1830, the present public school No. 8 was established, the district having been laid out

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some time before. It was the legitimate successor of a select academy which had been kept, under the auspices of the Reformed Dutch Church of the village, from about 1812. This select school was first taught by John Mann, then (from 1814 to 1816) by William Clare, then by a Scotchman named Laird, then, 1818 to 1823, by the excellent John Laidlaw. About 1830, the trustees leased the building, which belonged to the Dutch church and stood on the Middagh estate, on nearly the site of the present edificc of No. 8, on Mid- dagh between Henry and Hicks streets. It was a two- story wooden affair, with a portico over the main en- trance, and a small bell tower and bell on top, the whole painted of a dingy yellow color. Adrian Hegeman was the first teacher of this school, which was accommodated with a new building in 1846, which was enlarged again in 1860.

From an early period of its organization, until his re- tirement from the Board of Education, Mr. Cyrus P. Smith was associated with the direction of this school. Mr. Smith had seen the city, of which he was afterward chief magistrate, attain its great population and wealth, from the germ of a country village. During his official relationship to the city, every structure occupied by a public school had been erected or reconstructed. No other citizen of Brooklyn, probably, exercised a more potent influence in promoting its various educational enterprises. For a period of more than the average age of man he was an active member of the Board of Edu- cation, over which for twenty years he presided. It would be difficult to name any enterprise connected with the material or intellectual progress of Brooklyn witli whose origin and progress he was not associated. But, amid all the honors and successes with which his life was crowned, there is nothing for which his memory deserves to be held in more grateful remembrance than his services in the cause of popular education. Mr. J. Reeves, an esteemed teacher, became principal of this school in 1848, where he remained until his death in 1862.

The next school established in Brooklyn was that now known as No. 9. The first building was erected on the ground now occupied by the eastern section of Pros- pect Park. Its period of organization is so uncertain that we can only state it to be subsequently to 1830, and prior to 1836.

The new building, on the plaza of Prospect Park, was erected in 1868, at a cost, including the land, of $99,920.64, which at the time was the largest amount which had been expended by the Board for a public school.

This school was organized on September 18th, 1868, by the appointment of Mrs. Jane Dunkley, as Princi- pal. She was the first woman appointed in Brooklyn to preside over a large grammar school. This prc- cedent was followed in two or three instances more recently. Mr. Edward Rowe, one of the most honored

members of the present Board of Education, has been for many years at the head of the Committee of this school.

A school had been in existence, prior to 1835, near the junction of the Gowanus and Port roads, in the neighborhood of the present Fourth avenue and Ma- comb street. In about the year 1847, it was organized as Public School No. 10, on 15th street, between Third and Fourth avenues, under the trusteeship of members of the Bergen family. In 1870, a large building of three stories was erected on Seventh avenue, at a cost for building and land of $103,000, and called No. 10, The old building was used as a Primary and Interme- diate school, and is now known as No. 40. A large additional structure, with every modern improvement, has just been completed on part of the old site, to ac- commodate the increasing population. Mr. Peter Rouget was appointed Principal of No. 10, on Septem- ber 29, 1847, and still remains in charge. The late Peter G. Bergen was for nearly thirty years a member of the local committee, and was succeeded by his son, Garret Bergen, and thereafter by his nephew, Tunis G. Bergen.

Organization of the Board of Education .- In 1835, the first special law was cnacted for public educa- tion in the City of Brooklyn, Under this law the Trustees were to report to the Common Council. In the year 1843, an Act was passed creating a Board of Education, which, together with the Mayor and the Superintendent, should consist of twenty-eight members. But, in 1850, another special law was passed, which made the Board of Education to consist of thirty-three members, to be nominated and elected by the Common Council alone. This law may be regarded as the foun- dation of our local law relative to the public schools. Although it has been subjected to many modifications and amendments, this law has never been repealed in terms.

In the year 1854, under the act which consolidated the cities of Brooklyn and Williamsburg and the town of Bushwick, a further change was made in the structure of the Board. The Common Council was authorized to increase the number of members of the Board in proportion to the increase of population. The number of members was for that year fixed at forty- five, of whom thirteen should reside in the new terri- tory, called the Eastern District. By the Act of 1862, the number of members was definitely fixed at forty- five, who were to be nominated by the Mayor and confirmed by the Aldermen. This number, in spite of the extraordinary growth of the city in population, and of many public discussions as to the propriety of an in- crease or of a decrease, has remained ever since the same. Since 1881, the members have been appointed solely by the Mayor.

Mr. Cyrus P. Smith was President of the Board for twenty-one successive years ; Dr. J. Sullivan Thorne

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for two years, and Mr. E. S. Whitlock from 1870, up to the time of his death, in 1881. Mr. Daniel Maujer was President from July, 1881, to the 1st of January, 1882, when he retired from the Board, full of years and honors, and died that same year. In January, 1882, the Board was reorganized, and Tunis G. Bergen, the present incumbent, was elected President.

From the year 1867 to July, 1881, the Secretary of the Board was George A. W. Stuart. Repeatedly re- elected to that office, and enjoying the confidence of the Board, the discovery, in June, 1881, of a most in- genious and far-reaching system of embezzlements on his part of some of the funds of the Board, extending over a period of ten or a dozen years, followed by his flight and complete disappearance, fell like a thunder- clap upon the community, and dumb-founded the old members of the Board, who had placed implicit faith in him for so many years.

In July, 1881, Mr. D. W. Tallmadge was elected Secretary, and still fulfills the duties of the office with great energy of mind and honesty of purpose.

On the first organization of the Board, in 1855, Mr. J. W. Bulkley was elected Superintendent of Public Instruction, or, as he was then called, City Superin- tendent, and held the office for a score of years. Al- though succeeded by others, he still remains Associate Superintendent. Mr. Bulkley was succeeded as Super- intendent by the late Mr. Thomas W. Field, formerly a member of the Board, and well known in historical and literary circles. Soon after Mr. Field's death, in 1881, Mr. Calvin Patterson, Principal of P. S. No. 13, was elected Superintendent, and still holds that posi- tion. In 1882, Mr. W. H. Maxwell was elected as Second Associate Superintendent.

Board of Education Hall .- As late as 1830, Ful- ton street and Red Hook lane remained the principal thoroughfares of the village of Brooklyn. The corpo- rate limits of the village on the east was the lane, and upon it, just outside of the embryo city, James E. Un- derhill, a successful builder, erected the pretentious and, what was then considered, splendid structure now occupied by the Board of Education. Red Hook lane was then a thronged and busy thoroughfare, affording, the only means of access to the numerous mills and farms of South Brooklyn and the Hook. The farm of Tunis Johnson, covering nearly one hundred acres, was bounded by the lanc, and was the nearest estate to the little cor- poration of the village of Brooklyn. On this prominent corner Mr. Underhill built his residence, and only a few of the citizens of Brooklyn remember that this nar- row, sccluded lane was, not many years ago, one of the busiest of her streets. It was not until 1850 that the Board of Education occupied it, having for several years next subsequent to its organization held its ses- sions in the Common Council chamber; and, later still, for a number of years in Public School No. 1. The building has been much enlarged within recent years,

but its capacity is too small to furnish sufficient room for the proper transaction of the vast and intricate busi- ness of administering to the public education of a city of seven hundred thousand people.

Since the organization of the present Board and the consolidation of the city with Williamsburg and Bush- wick, Brooklyn has increased in population to such an enormous extent, that the number of grammar school districts has been continually increased, until thirty-five grammar school buildings have been erected, seven in- termediate schools, twelve primary schools, and three schools for colored children. In addition to these, a building is used for the Central Grammar School, which was intended to unite in one building the vari- ous so-called academic classes in the grammar schools; and two buildings are used for the Attendance Schools. This makes a total of sixty-three buildings at the pres- ent time used for public school purposes in the city.

A new feature of the present system was the estab- lishment, about five years ago, of the so-called "At- tendance Schools," for the accommodation of truant and delinquent boys, where they might still receive in- struction or bear the alternative of confinement in the Truant Home, an institution belonging to the city, but the management of which, happily, is not under the control of the Board. The enforcement of the Com- pulsory School Act is in the hands of a special commit- tee of the Board, with a Superintendent of Attendance and seven agents, who watch over the entire city, ex- amine the various manufactories and stores where boys are employed, and report such boys, under fourteen years of age, who do not attend school, as fit subjects for the Attendance Schools, or, as a last resort, of the Truant Home. The Brooklyn system has been adopted, in its main features, by the city of New York and many other cities of the Union.

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The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884 Volume I, Part 154

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed. cn; Brockett, L. P. (Linus Pierpont), 1820-1893; Proctor, L. B. (Lucien Brock), 1830-1900. 1n Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York : W. W. Munsell & Co. Number of Pages: 1114

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed. cn; Brockett, L. P. (Linus Pierpont), 1820-1893; Proctor, L. B. (Lucien Brock), 1830-1900. 1n
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1114